Home Buyer Surveys and Consumer Research

The Home Buying Institute educates home buyers on all aspects of the home-buying process. We also conduct various surveys and consumer research to better serve our audience. You can find our latest surveys below.

Consumers Expect Foreclosures to Rise in 2011
Most consumers expect the number of foreclosure homes available will increase in 2011. In fact, the vast majority (77 percent) feel that local foreclosure inventories will rise. Only six percent of consumers felt that local foreclosure inventories would decrease.
Published: February 1, 2011

Consumers Favor Another Home-Buyer Tax Credit
Do you think another home-buyer tax credit would help stabilize the housing market? That's the question we asked in this survey. As it turns out, most people feel that such a credit would help the housing market. Still, another credit seems unlikely at this point.
Published: November 7, 2010

Americans Feel Foreclosure-Prevention Efforts are Lacking
How do you feel about the U.S. government's efforts to reduce the number of foreclosures? The surprising thing about this survey is that nearly a quarter of respondents (22.9 percent) said the government should never have gotten involved to begin with.
Published: October 24, 2010

Home Buyers Reveal Their Biggest Fears
We asked thousands of home buyers what they were most afraid of when buying a home. Most people said they feared having a mortgage payment that was too big for them. A lot of home buyers were also concerned about paying more for a house than it's worth.
Published: September 23, 2010

59% of Homeowners Will Apply for Refinancing Online
We conducted this survey to find out how many homeowners would apply for refinancing online, through a lender's website. The majority said they would submit a loan application online. This is a significant increase over a survey we ran in 2007.
Published: August 23, 2010

68% of Home Buyers Prefer Local Banks Over the Majors
At a time when large banks are viewed as unscrupulous robber barons, the following survey might not be much of a surprise. We asked home buyers if they prefer to work with a local bank / credit union to get a home loan, or the big national banks like Wells Fargo and BOA. The majority wanted to "keep it local."
Published: August 14, 2010

71% of Home Buyers Plan to Use a Real Estate Agent
Do you plan to use a real estate agent when buying a home? This is the question we posed to more than 15,000 readers on our main website. The majority of respondents said they would use an agent to help with their purchase.
Published: August 7, 2010

87% of Home Buyers Plan to Use an FHA Home Loan
We presented this survey to more than 12,000 readers. We asked future home buyers a simple question: Do you plan to use an FHA loan to purchase your home? The vast majority said yes, they were planning to use an FHA loan.
Published: June 2, 2010