A Realtor.com survey found that two-thirds of pet owners would even forego a dream home if it couldn’t easily accommodate their pets.
While buyers may not buy a home specifically with their pet in mind, 95% will ignore a listing if it doesn’t easily accommodate furry family members, according to a survey by realtor.com.
In addition, more than two-thirds of pet-owning homebuyers would forgo their perfect home if it created any kind of problem accommodating a pet.
“The results of this survey reinforce that our pets are our family and an important part of what makes a house a home,” says Nate Johnson, chief marketing officer of realtor.com.
The results are based on an online survey conducted in March of more than 2,000 people who planned to purchase a home in the next 12 months, and it’s fairly consistent with a similar survey realtor.com done in August 2018.
Of those surveyed, 82% of the respondents identified themselves as pet owners. Dogs were the most common pet (61%), followed by cats (45%), fish (12%) and birds (9%).
Of those pet-owning homebuyers, nearly 95% said that their pets’ needs would be at least a somewhat important consideration during their home search. Approximately 84% ranked their animals’ needs “extremely important” or “very important” in their home-search (55% and 29%, respectively; less than 5% said their needs were unimportant.
The focus on pets held true regardless of a homebuyer’s age: 96% of 18- to 34-year-olds, 97% of 35- to 54-year-olds and 87% of 55+ buyers said their animal would be at least a “somewhat important” factor during their home search.
And it wasn’t just dogs and cats. While 87% of dog and cat owners said their pets’ needs were extremely important or very important during their home search, 89% of bird owners, 85% of fish owners, 80% of reptile owners, 79% of rodent owners and 74% of horse owners, indicated their pet would factor into their decision.
For two-thirds of pet-owning buyers (68%), their pets play such an important role that they’d “forgo an otherwise perfect home.” Those aged 35 to 54 were most likely to pass (72%), compared with 66% of buyers between the ages of 18 to 34 years old and 51% of those 55+. People with children (71%) felt more strongly that the home needed to accommodate their pet than people without children (59%).
Homebuyers were asked to rank the three home features they considered most important for their pets. The top five features were: A large yard (38%), any outdoor space (29%), a garage (24%), a dog run (22%), close proximity to outdoor spaces (21%) and large square footage (20%).
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