More Than Three in Five US Consumers Would Consider Buying a Home at Auction
With the expiration of the foreclosure moratorium, more homes are expected to hit the auction market in the coming year – creating an additional option for consumers to purchase property, particularly while supply in the market is tight. ServiceLink, part of the FNF family of companies and the nation’s premier provider of tech-enabled mortgage services, unveiled data from a recent survey that shows a majority of consumers are open to achieving homeownership through options like auction.
The survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of ServiceLink, includes insights from more than 3,000 U.S. consumers to better understand their perceptions of the overall housing market and their attitudes towards purchasing a home at auction.
Key findings from the survey include:
Willingness: Despite the opportunity for greater awareness, consumers are open to buying homes at auction.
- More than one in four U.S. consumers (28%) are not aware that you can buy a home at auction.
- More than three in five U.S. consumers (62%) would consider buying a home at auction, with one in ten (10%) saying they have done so.
- Millennials (ages 25-40) are more apt to consider buying at auction than their older counterparts. Seventy-five percent of millennials say they would consider buying a home at auction, compared to 65% of Gen Xers (ages 41-56) and 54% of baby boomers (ages 57-75).
- One-fifth (21%) of millennial consumers have bought a home at auction, compared to 13% of Gen Z (ages 18-24), 6% of Gen Xers and 4% of baby boomers.
Motivation: Price and speed are driving factors for consumers when considering buying a home at auction.
- Potential cost savings (70%) and a faster homebuying process (57%) are motivating factors for more than half of U.S. consumers to buy a home at auction.
- Alternatively, not being able to see the home in-person prior to buying (66%) and not being able to get a professional inspection (62%) are factors that would stop U.S. consumers from buying at auction.
- Forty-two percent of U.S. consumers say the ability to bid remotely (online) would motivate them to buy a home at an auction. For millennials, this jumps to 55%. Younger generations show openness to using remote bidding tools, which can make auctions more accessible, as travel is not necessary in order to participate.
Market Outlook: Consumers anticipate the real estate market will continue to be competitive for potential homebuyers in 2022.
- Many U.S. consumers anticipate the suburbs will continue to thrive, with 41% saying they believe the suburbs will continue to be popular areas for homebuying in 2022, and only 12% believing Americans who left big cities will return to them to live.
- Almost half of U.S. consumers (45%) expect home prices to increase in 2022.
- Almost two-fifths of U.S. consumers (39%) believe there will be an increase in foreclosed homes available for purchase at auction in 2022.
“It’s not surprising that millennials are pursuing new opportunities to achieve homeownership, particularly in the current real estate market where they are facing challenges due to high prices and low supply,” said Miriam Moore, president of default services at ServiceLink. “We expect that more auction properties will hit the market next year through foreclosure and buying homes at auction will become more mainstream as consumers look to buy quickly and at competitive pricing.”
Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of ServiceLink from October 25-27, 2021 among 3,058 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact servicelink@missionnorth.com.
About ServiceLink
ServiceLink is the nation’s premier provider of digital mortgage services to the mortgage and finance industries. ServiceLink leads the way by delivering best-in-class technologies, a full product suite of services and proven experience, built on a foundation of quality, compliance and service excellence. ServiceLink provides valuation, title and closing, and flood services to mortgage originators; and default valuation, integrated default title services, vendor invoicing and claims audit services, as well as field services and auction services to mortgage servicers. ServiceLink helps clients in the lending industry and beyond achieve their strategic goals, realize greater efficiencies, and better serve their customers. For more information about ServiceLink, please visit svclnk.com.
