Americans homeowners are staying put.
Fully 62 percent say that don’t ever plan to move, according to a survey by bankrate.com -- and 30 percent don’t know, or won’t share, the interest rate on their mortgage.
Over the next five years, people are more likely to remodel, upgrade or add on their home rather than sell it and move. Bankrate found that preference to be the case “across all age and income brackets.”
A resounding 79 percent of homeowners don’t plan on moving in the next five years. But 35 percent do say they’ be renovating in some way during that time.
Americans are staying home “for the foreseeable future, either by choice, or by necessity or some combination,” Bankrate said in announcing its survey finding.
Bankrate’s Greg McBride tells Newsradio 740 KTRH that’s one reason the housing market – nationally, in Houston, everywhere – is so tight.
He says prospective homebuyers are finding a lack of inventory of home for sale.
The survey also found:
--21 percent own their primary home without a mortgage, while 32 percent are working to paying one off.
--The median mortgage rate is 3.95 percent – but 29 percent either don’t know or won't say what their mortgage rate is. That number is even higher for Millennials (ages 18-37) at 37 percent and Gen Xers (ages 38-53) at 35 percent. Bankrate calls that “a troubling statistic for those who could benefit from a good refinancing opportunity”
--39 percent of both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers (ages 54-72) have a mortgage on their primary home.
--27 percent of younger Boomers (ages 54-63), 38% of older Boomers (ages 64-72) and 51 percent of The Silent Generation (ages 73+) own a home that’s already paid off.
--Sixty-one percent of those ages 18-30 do not own their home.
--Millennials (ages 31-37) are equally likely to own a home than not (43 percent).