There is an old adage in the real estate industry that says the top three priorities for home buyers are location, location, and location. Nothing about location has changed over the last several decades. Buyers still consider physical location a top priority. By extension, the location of a given home determines the types of buyers it will attract.
Think of physical location in terms of your own home. Where is your house located in relation to what’s important to you? When you look at home sales from that perspective, the actual size of a home and the amenities it offers is less important. You begin looking at other factors like traffic, commute times, schools, and so forth. Meyer mansion condos location definitely puts a whole new spin on home buying priorities.
Proximity to Work and School
Home is the one place we spend the majority of our time. Tied for second place are work and school. So it makes sense that buyers would want homes within reasonable proximity of where parents work and kids are educated. According to the Jason Fox blog, buyers would prefer homes that are no more than 15 minutes away from both.
This makes a lot of sense. If you live 30 minutes from work, you are spending an hour each day just commuting. Heaven forbid heavy traffic increases your one-way commute to 40 or 50 minutes. Traffic on a bad day could have you sitting in the car for hours.
Shopping, Entertainment, Etc.
After proximity to work and school, buyers look for local amenities including shopping entertainment. This could explain why cities continue to attract younger buyers. Salt Lake City, Utah is a model for urban areas with strong housing markets and a young workforce.
Wanting easy access to local amenities is nothing new. Furthermore, it is not limited just to luxury home properties and condo buyers, says Salt Lake’s CityHome Collective. Even people purchasing the least expensive city homes don’t want to travel long distances to access local amenities. They want to be able to walk to restaurants, ride their bikes to the park, and so forth.
Interestingly, different demographics have different priorities when it comes to local amenities. Where younger buyers might be all about nightlife, shopping, etc., older buyers tend to look for houses with easy access to golf courses and community centers.
Neighborhood Quality
Finally, location is important to home buyers for the simple reason that they care about neighborhood quality. It’s common knowledge that people aren’t aggressively looking to move into high crime areas. They want neighborhoods they believe are safe. They want neighborhoods where people take care of their properties and watch out for one another.
The desire for a high-quality neighborhood really is a reflection of who we are. There are certain things that matter to us more than multiple bathrooms, large swimming pools, and multi car garages. After all, a house is just a building. A neighborhood is where life is lived.
What does all this mean to sellers? It means that your home will attract buyers, at least to a certain degree, based on its location. Let’s say you own a Salt Lake City condo close to the center of town. It is likely to attract millennial buyers with good jobs in a strong sector. If you’re trying to sell an older home in a neighborhood blocks away from the city center, the house should attract young families with parents who work in the area.
It’s true that location really does matter. It might matter more than buyers and sellers realize.
