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Location, location, location? Wait. Northeast buyers care more about this.
In a Coldwell Banker survey, respondents said price trumped location as their most important factor in picking a new home.
Northeast respondents said price trumped location as their most important factor in picking a new home, and they’re looking to move out of town, according to a survey Coldwell Banker released Monday.
The real estate company reported that 55.8% of its 1,050 Northeast respondents said price is the most important factor, while 53.24% preferred location.
The old adage “Location, location, location” is still important, but with high home prices and mortgage rates, it’s lost some of its power.
Higher mortgage rates, Coldwell Banker’s top Massachusetts agent told Boston.com, are affecting buyers’ purchasing power, and an inventory shortage is making them expand their search.
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“Even during COVID, we had so much more inventory come on — rates were so much lower,” said Melissa Dailey, the Wellesley agent. “There were more choices.”
| Most important factor when buying a home | All | Midwest | Northeast | South | West |
| Price | 56.35% | 57.81% | 55.81% | 60.30% | 51.43% |
| Location | 49.68% | 48.57% | 53.24% | 47.88% | 49.05% |
| Condition | 27.46% | 29.05% | 28.10% | 26.34% | 26.38% |
| Size | 23.43% | 23.52% | 21.90% | 20.98% | 27.33% |
| Design | 12.63% | 12.10% | 10.19% | 9.03% | 19.24% |
| Nothing in particular | 5.01% | 4.38% | 4.95% | 7.90% | 2.76% |
The survey results come after Massachusetts real estate prices broke records in January, as The Warren Group reported that the median sales price for a single-family home jumped to $550,000. And, RealtyHop reported in February that it took a family with the median income in 2022 nearly twice as long to save up for a median-value home in Massachusetts compared with buyers in 1970.
Dailey said the market conditions are causing buyers to look beyond their desired town for their new home.
“If someone was thinking MetroWest,” Dailey said, “because there’s been such tight inventory, maybe they’ve even opened up to the South Shore … or up north.”
The Northeast respondents, the real estate company reported, said price and location were more important factors than condition, size and design. Approximately half a percentage point more of national respondents ranked price as the most important factor compared with those in the Northeast.
And only 22% of those surveyed in the Northeast said they think 2024 will be a better year to buy a home, while more than a third of respondents said it will be the same as 2022 and nearly a fourth said it’ll be worse, the survey reported.
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Of the 137 Northeast respondents who bought a home in the last year, more said they moved because they found a dream home compared with the number of buyers who relocated because of family growth, lifestyle choice, investment, job relocation, retirement, or downsizing.
“The world won’t stop because of the rates,” Dailey said. “And I think we’ve just kind of become [accepting] of them in hopes that, you know, you can ride the storm and in hopes that they go down and [you can] refinance.”
| Reason respondents purchased a new home | All | Midwest | Northeast | South | West |
| I found my dream home | 30.77% | 25.27% | 35.04% | 23.48% | 33.47% |
| Relocation for lifestyle choice | 29.34% | 26.34% | 26.28% | 32.17% | 30.72% |
| Family grew or expanded | 28.35% | 24.73% | 27.01% | 23.48% | 31.36% |
| For investment | 27.58% | 27.42% | 24.82% | 23.48% | 29.45% |
| Relocation for work | 24.73% | 24.73% | 18.98% | 15.65% | 28.60% |
| Retirement | 23.41% | 16.67% | 16.06% | 12.17% | 30.93% |
| Downsized | 22.86% | 25.27% | 14.60% | 14.78% | 26.27% |
| For vacation | 22.20% | 19.35% | 15.33% | 10.43% | 28.18% |
| Other | 1.21% | 2.15% | 3.65% | 1.74% | 0.00% |
The real estate company also asked respondents about the type of homes they preferred and what social media platforms affected the style they preferred.
More Northeast respondents preferred apartment-style, Colonial, and Cape Cod-style homes compared with respondents in other regions. And approximately half of the Northeast respondents said a home with three to four bedrooms was their dream size.
The survey reported that of the 236 respondents who said they plan to sell their homes, 35.59% are looking to move to a different city compared with 31.36% who said they’ll keep the search to their area. In the Midwest, approximately 6 percentage points more of respondents said they plan to look in their area compared with those who intend to search in a different city.
| Where respondents plan to move | All | Midwest | Northeast | South | West |
| Somewhere in the same town or city I currently live in | 30.34% | 40.00% | 31.36% | 22.80% | 27.50% |
| A different city | 39.32% | 33.82% | 35.59% | 39.38% | 44.01% |
| A different state | 24.40% | 19.27% | 27.54% | 29.02% | 23.97% |
| A different country | 2.97% | 2.91% | 1.69% | 3.63% | 3.34% |
| Not at all sure | 2.97% | 4.00% | 3.81% | 5.18% | 1.18% |
And fewer Northeast buyers reported in the survey that Facebook influenced their decision to purchase a certain type of home compared with YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Dailey said she puts her listings on TikTok.
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“I think my guess would be that in the city, or more of a place where you’re going to have the younger buyers, I think that TikTok is going to be a lot more relevant,” Dailey said.
| Social media that influenced the style of home purchased | All | Midwest | Northeast | South | West |
| 50.60% | 57.95% | 49.45% | 57.49% | 41.18% | |
| YouTube | 49.89% | 49.09% | 52.11% | 57.49% | 43.67% |
| TikTok | 49.34% | 47.50% | 51.22% | 54.28% | 45.99% |
| 47.59% | 42.95% | 51.44% | 49.20% | 47.06% | |
| 29.03% | 32.50% | 25.28% | 26.74% | 30.84% | |
| X | 24.48% | 22.73% | 22.62% | 20.86% | 29.77% |
| 18.35% | 19.09% | 12.86% | 14.71% | 24.60% | |
| Other | 0.82% | 1.14% | 0.22% | 1.07% | 0.89% |
A smaller percentage of Northeast respondents said they received financial support from their parents to purchase a home compared with buyers in the Midwest and West.
Before buyers even start looking for a home, Dailey said, they should ask their mortgage brokers how much they can afford.
They also need to find a real estate agent they can trust.
“They need to talk to somebody who does this every day and is able to guide them on the process of how to find the area that they want to move to, the type of house, and then also when they find their dream house, how to set their offer up so that they become competitive,” she said.
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