Emily Chan
Dreams of owning a house are being dashed to bits amidst skyrocketing home prices, forcing Americans to rethink their aspirations, according to a new survey.
Nowadays, practicalities must be considered over luxuries as that picture-perfect image of a house with a white picket fence — the very symbol of the American dream — strays further from our reach every day.
A poll of 2,000 U.S. adults found that 58 percent have seen housing prices increase over the past five years, while 39 percent feel they are stuck living where they currently are. The affordability of housing (50 percent), crime rates (40 percent), and the costs of home repairs (35 percent) are also major concerns.
At present, Americans spend a quarter of their monthly income on housing. Ideally, they would like to spend 19 percent.
Mortgage interest rates would need to be reduced to at least four percent before the average prospective homebuyer would think about moving to a new house. And 42 percent might consider moving if there were incentive programs in place at the location they would buy or build in.
Of all the Americans surveyed, 43 percent rented their homes, while 57 percent owned their homes. Almost half (49 percent) of all renters preferred to rent, but the other half (47 percent) stated that they wanted to own a home someday. Of the 47 percent, 17 percent want to own a home within the next 18 months. One-third often contemplate their “dream home” and “dream workspace.”
“Rising costs are causing people to really rethink what’s actually important to them,” Tanner Dieterich, head of owner and contractor relations at Built, a construction and real estate finance technology company, said. “If you look back just a few years, people wanted pools and home theaters.”
But now, the data shows that people are shifting more toward practicality. According to the survey, the ideal “dream home” is an average of 2,402 square feet. A single-family dwelling was preferred by 69 percent of participants over a multi-family building, townhouse, or condo.
The majority of participants listed their most desired home features as central air conditioning and heating, laundry appliances that were easy to access, a yard or green space, and nearby local amenities. Having a pool, professional cooking equipment, manicured landscaping, gym, home theater, greenhouse, and au-pair suites were not priorities.
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