Executive Summary

A global pandemic, historic economic change and unprecedented home value growth have been hallmarks of the past year. But while these large-scale changes have shifted the housing market landscape and have the potential to reshape homeowners' preferences over the longer term, many behaviors and attitudes remain the same as they always have.

The 2021 Consumer Housing Trends Report (CHTR) provides a snapshot of what housing consumers are thinking and doing in mid-2021. In this report, we take a deeper look at homeowners; in other reports, we examine renters, buyers, and sellers more closely.

Who are homeowners?

The typical US homeowner is 56 years old, married, has at least some college education, and is most likely to live in the South. Demographic change tends to play out over a long time: Most of these characteristics have not changed substantially, if at all, over the last few years.

What do their homes look like?

Most homeowners (82%) live in a single-family home. Typically, this home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and is about 1,725 square feet. Slightly under half (44%) of homeowners are still living in the first home they purchased, and about a quarter (25%) are in their second home.

Who is planning to move and why?

About one-in-seven homeowners (15%) say they have plans to move and sell their home within the next three years. Despite the unprecedented events of the last twelve months, their reasons for wanting to move follow traditional patterns. More than three-quarters of homeowners who have already listed cite wanting a home with upgraded features (81%) or in a different neighborhood (80%) as reasons. Family reasons also remain a major consideration - many of those who have listed cite wanting to live closer to family (78%) or a change in family size (84%).

The current intensity of the housing market is a major concern for some homeowners that may otherwise consider selling their home and moving — 25% cited concern about not being able to find and/or afford a different home as a reason for not considering a move in the next three years.

Survey Methodology

Research Approach

In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of U.S. homeowners, Zillow Group Population Science conducted a nationally representative survey of more than 2,300 homeowners. The study was fielded between March and May 2021. Wherever possible, survey questions from previous years were asked in the same manner this year to allow for the measurement of year-to-year trends in key areas of business interest. This year was the first year that ZG Population Science designed, fielded and analyzed the survey entirely in-house.

For the purpose of this study, "homeowners" refers to household decision makers that both own their primary residence (either with a mortgage or free-and-clear) and did not move in the past year.

Sampling & Weighting

Results from this survey are nationally representative of homeowners. To achieve representativeness, ZG Population Science used a two-prong approach. First, the initial recruitment to the sample was balanced to all homeowners from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) on the basis of age, relationship status, income, ethnicity/race, education, region and sex. Additional targeted subgroups were sampled based on all key household demographic characteristics. Second, statistical raking was used to create calibration weights to ensure that the distribution of survey respondents matched the U.S. population with respect to a number of key demographic characteristics.

Quality Control

To reduce response bias, survey respondents did not know that Zillow Group was conducting the survey. Several additional quality control measures were also taken to ensure data accuracy:

• We identified and terminated any professional respondents, robots or those taking the survey on multiple devices.

• Completion times were recorded to ensure that surveys submitted by the fastest respondents, who may have rushed through the survey, did not provide poor quality data. If necessary, these respondents were removed from the sample.

• In-survey quality control checks identified illogical or unrealistic responses.

Additional Data Sources

Unless otherwise specified, estimates in this report come from the Consumer Housing Trends Report (CHTR) 2021, and year-over-year comparisons also use data from CHTR 2019 and CHTR 2020. To provide a fuller picture of the state of homeownership and homeowners' characteristics, preferences and behaviors, we also analyzed data from other sources:

• U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey – The most recently available dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau's survey of the U.S. population. The ACS is the nation's largest survey and is based on a probability sample; as such, it is considered one of the leading sources of information on U.S. population and housing.

• ZG Population Science, Q2 2021 Quarterly Survey of Homeowner Intentions and Preferences (QSHIP) – Conducted by Population Science each quarter to gather information about homeowner sentiment on selling, moving and the greater housing market.
  

The Typical Homeowner & Home

In this section, we provide a high-level overview of key homeowner demographic info and what their homes look like. According to the Census Bureau, homeowners represent 57% of adults in the country.¹

Age

The median age of U.S. homeowners is 56 years old, indicating that most homeowners tend to be middle-aged or older. As seen below, only 13% of homeowners are in their thirties, and 17% are in their forties.

The largest generational group of homeowners is between 57 and 76 years old in 2021 — the group colloquially known as "Baby Boomers." About 42% of homeowners are Baby Boomers.

Race & Ethnicity

Most homeowners are non-Hispanic White or Caucasian (75%), larger than the overall share of the U.S. adult population that is white (63%). At the same time, 12% of U.S. adults identify as non-Hispanic Black or African American, but only 8% of all homeowners are Black.

Source: US Adult composition from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019.

Region

More than half of homeowners live in the South (38%) or Midwest (24%).

Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation

Approximately 5% of homeowners in 2021 identify as LGBTQ+. This percentage did not significantly change from last year or 2019².

Income

Homeowners tend to have higher income than the U.S. population overall. The annual median household income among homeowners is approximately $77,500, compared to the overall national median (2019) of $65,700.³

Education

Homeowners also tend to have more education than the overall U.S. adult population — 41% of homeowners have at least a four-year degree, compared to 33% of the overall U.S. population.

Relationship Status

Prior research has shown that the purchase of a home is often tied to family formation. This relationship between homeownership and family formation helps explain why 9 out of 10 homeowners (89%) are currently married (62%) or have been married in the past (27%).

Household Composition⁴

• 40% of homeowners have children under age 18 in their home

• 3% of homeowners have their parents or parents-in-law in their homes

• 46% have at least one dog

• 34% have at least one cat

• 26% have another kind of pet

Urbanicity

Almost half of homeowners describe the area that they live in as suburban (48%); 27% say they live in a rural area, and the remaining 25% say they live in an urban area.

Home Type, Beds, Baths, Size, Condition and Mortgage

Detached, single-family homes remain the most commonly owned home type — about 4 out of every 5 homeowners (82%) live in such a home.

The typical homeowner lives in a 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,725 square-foot single-family detached house and has lived there for 15 years.

The largest share of homeowners report that they're still living in the first home they purchased (44%), while a quarter (25%) have bought two homes so far. Another quarter (28%) have bought three or more homes during their lives. The small remainder — about 3% — report that they have never bought a home. This small share is likely to have acquired their homes via inheritance or other irregular means.

Homeowners were also asked about the current condition of their home. About one in three (30%) homeowners says that their home is in like-new condition. Approximately half (52%) say it could use a little updating in a few areas. One-in-seven (15%) says that it could use some serious updating; and 4% say their home needs a complete overhaul.

Given the popularity of the 30-year mortgage and the fact the typical homeowner has been in their home for 15 years, it's not surprising that most homeowners (63%) are still paying off their mortgage. The remaining 37% own their homes free and clear.

Most Homeowners Have No Plans to Sell & Move

Homeowners with Plans to Move Skew Younger, Urban and High-Income

About one in seven homeowners (15%) say they have plans to move and sell their home within the next three years. The youngest homeowners (those under age 40) are most likely to say that they have such plans: 31% say so, compared with 21% of those ages 40-49, 10% of those in their 50s and 60s, and 8% of those age 70 and up.

Urban and higher-income homeowners are also more likely to report plans to move than others: 30% of homeowners that consider their area urban have such plans, as do 19% of those with a household income of at least $100,000.

Most with Plans to Move Haven't Pulled the Trigger Yet

Among homeowners with plans to move in the next three years, about one in seven (15%) say that their home is currently listed. Approximately 42% say they are considering selling in the next year, and another 43% say they are considering selling in the next two or three years.

Reasons for Listing

Homeowners that have already listed their homes for sale are most likely to cite wanting a home with upgraded or more desirable features (81%), wanting to live in a different neighborhood (80%), proximity to family (78%), and to sell for a profit and use the equity for another purpose (77%).

Reasons for Considering Selling

Like with homeowners that have already listed, the top three reasons for those considering selling are wanting a home with upgraded or more desirable features (59%), wanting to live in a different neighborhood (59%) and to sell for a profit and use the equity for another purpose (54%).

Reasons for Not Listing

Among homeowners that have not listed their home for sale, the most common reasons they cite are concern that they won't be able to find and/or afford a new home (25%), anticipating a more favorable sale price if they wait (21%), planning or completing a renovation (20%), and life being too uncertain (19%).

Younger Homeowners More Likely to Consider Selling, while Older Homeowners Stay Put

Almost a third (31%) of homeowners under age 40 — collectively owning about 4 million homes nationwide — said they were considering selling within the next 3 years, significantly higher than 22% in 2020.⁷ In contrast, older homeowners (who hold more than twice as much inventory) were less likely to consider selling: 11% said they would consider it within the next 3 years — down slightly from 14% from 2020.

¹ Specifically, 57% of adult heads of households are homeowners. About 47% of adults are homeowner heads of household or their spouse/partner.
²LGBTQ+ homeowners are those who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming/non-binary, intersex, or with another sexual orientation (other than straight) or gender identity (e.g. gender fluid, gender queer, gender neutral).
³National median income is from U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey.
⁴These estimates come from CHTR 2021 and the 2019 American Community Survey.
⁵ Estimates in this paragraph are from the ZG Population Science: Q2 2021 Quarterly Survey of Homeowner Intentions and Preferences (QSHIP)
⁶ This is a comparatively large difference by age, compared with previous surveys, which suggests that uncertainty from the pandemic may have caused such a large divide to emerge, especially at a time when many young people were not yet eligible to be vaccinated (March – May 2021). The trend by age remained in the subsequent Q2 2021 Quarterly Survey of Homeowner Intentions and Preferences (QSHIP, fielded in June 2021), but less extremely.
⁷ZG Population Science asked younger homeowners about their intentions to move again in June 2021 and found that the percentage decreased to 24%, which is closer to last year's percentage (22%). As 2021 CHTR was fielded between March and May, when COVID-19 vaccinations were largely unavailable to the majority of young adults during much of that time. Changes in who reported considering moving likely reflects lingering uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and medium- and longer-term plans.

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