Home buyer preferences by race, ethnicity
Although our nation has become more color blind as the American melting pot has pleasantly blurred every line imaginable, marketers still view preferences on race, ethnicity, age, geography, and so forth. This practice has become more convoluted because there aren’t really citizens who don’t have other races and ethnicities thrown into their DNA mix, but it remains so that marketers can better understand how to best reach and serve customers.
According to the National Association of Home Builders’ new report, “What Home Buyers Really Want: Ethnic preferences,” housing preferences are affected by a home buyer’s racial or ethnic background, after controlling for factors such as age and income.
NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly, a home builder and developer said, “The new data reveals some interesting findings about home buying preferences broken down by race and ethnicity. It contains invaluable information for builders by providing a window into the preferences of potential home buyers, and allowing them to tailor things to better meet the needs of their customers.”
Minority buyers are typically younger
The NAHB reports that minority home buyers are typically younger than White non-Hispanics buyers. The median African-American buyer is 39, the Hispanic buyer is 37, and the Asian buyer is about 36, while the median Caucasian buyer is 43 years old.
Over half of all buyers in all racial/ethnic groups are married couples: 80 percent of Caucasian buyers, 50 percent of African-Americans, 74 percent of Hispanics, and 79 percent of Asians. Most also have children living at home.
The study reveals that Asian home buyers have the highest median household income of all four groups, $72,797, compared with $67,747 for Caucasians, $50,221 for Hispanics, and $43,774 for African-Americans. Asians also expect to pay the most for their home: $283,469, compared with $205,775 among Caucasians, $181,444 among Hispanics, and $176,397 among African-Americans.
