Never mind that the commute time to work is long. Never mind that the kids may have to take an extended bus ride to get to school. There are far more important issues for us as new home buyers: We want maximum house for our money. We want lot sizes that give us plenty of room between us and our neighbors. And we want to be located in a neighborhood we consider “right” for all our needs--even at the cost of more time spent on the road.

Those are some of the key findings of a comprehensive new national study of what matters most to recent American home buyers. Released today in Washington, the study was conducted by the polling firm, National Family Opinion, based on a statistical sample of 2000 households that purchased a new home during the last four years. The poll was commissioned by the National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors, both of which strongly support “smart growth” inititiatives but oppose local growth controls that shut down new building.

Asked to choose among three possible concerns in their choice of a new house--price, neighborhood and minimal commute times--62 percent of respondents ranked price number one, versus 31 percent for neighborhood and just 7 percent for commute time.

“This survey demonstrates that home buyers are quite conscious of the tradeoffs they make when buying a home,” said Gary Garczynski, president of the NAHB and a builder/developer from Virginia. “They are willing to live further from the city in order to have a larger home, and the quality of the community is more important than the length of the commute.” Asked to gauge the importance of the life-quality features of a home and its location, here’s how home buyers ranked their priorities. The most attractive feature--judged “important” or “very important” by 62 percent of all households surveyed was “houses (in the neighborhood) spread out” with plenty of space separating units.

Next in importance: Low intensity traffic patterns in the neighborhood (60 percent ranked it important); low property taxes ,55 percent; bigger home (than current home), 47 percent; larger lot (than current home), 45 percent; less developed area, 40 percent; closer to work, 28 percent; closer to public transportation, 13 percent; smaller house, 10 percent.

When home buyers were asked to rate the importance of community amenities, those with the highest ratings were: highway access, 44 percent; jogging and bike trails, 36 percent; sidewalks, 28 percent, parks, 26 percent; playgrounds, 21 percent, and shops within walking area, 19 percent.

When asked to rank three alternative locations for future housing growth, 37 percent favored building new homes in existing, partially developed suburban areas. Over one third of respondents suggested building homes on vacant “infill” space or lots in the central city or inner suburbs; while 29 percent suggested building homes in outlying areas as their recommendation for future development.

NAHB’s Garczynski said the study reveals that new home buyers have “a vision of smart growth.” A majority of them “want single-family detached homes in a pedestrian-friendly community that has shopping within walking distance. They want a mix of open space, including parks, recreational facilities, playgrounds, farms, nature preserves and undeveloped areas. They also want traffic minimized on neighborhood streets.” To the extent that developers and planners can “can create high quality, walkable, mixed-use communties,” he said, “we will deliver a version of smart growth that is more likely to be accepted in the marketplace.”

Published: April 22, 2002

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Kenneth R. Harney writes an award-winning, nationally-syndicated column on housing and real estate from Washington, D.C. He is also managing director of the National Real Estate Development Center, a professional education company. He is a past member of the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council, a committee that by federal statute reviews all Fed actions on home mortgage, consmer credit and banking industry regulation. He served as a member of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Working Group on Computerized Loan Origination (CLO) systems, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Fannie Mae Foundation's journal, Housing Policy Debate. He is the author of two books on mortgage finance and real estate.