The results are in! When I created my home ownership questionnaire a week ago, I wanted to see if there were any common demographic factors among satisfied homeowners, dissatisfied homeowners, neutral homeowners, renters/non-homeowners who are interested in buying a home someday, and renters/non-homeowners who have no interest in buying a home.
Well guess what? The “dissatisfied homeowners” and “renters/non-homeowners who have no interest in buying a home” groups don’t exist, at least in my survey results.
I had 30 total respondents, half of which fell into the “Experienced homeowner/New homeowner (owned their home less than five years)” category, while the other half of the respondents identified themselves as “Renter/I do not own my own home or pay rent.” (Chart below)
The 15 homeowners responses ranged from “Neutral to Very Satisfied” – none replied that they were dissatisfied with homeownership. The 15 renters/non-homeowners replied either “Yes” or “Maybe” to the question “Do you wish to purchase a home in the future?” (graph below)
Though my survey is a relatively small sample of people, I found it very interesting that none of the homeowners that responded were totally dissatisfied with owning a home, while the renters/non-homeowners I surveyed either want to purchase a home in the future or are not completely closing the door on the idea of home ownership.
Other interesting data from my survey results:
-Of the six homeowners who replied that they were “Very satisfied” with their choice to purchase a home, four of them were in the 45-54 age bracket, one was in the 55-64 age bracket and one was in the 25-34 age bracket. Perhaps extreme satisfaction with home ownership comes with being an experienced homeowner? I would love to interview these folks and get the experiences behind the data.
-Most of the new and experienced homeowners – 13 of the 15, to be exact – were married, which makes sense. Financially, the responsibilities a home can bring seems to be easier when shared between two people. Kudos to the single homeowners because I couldn’t imagine caring for a home all by myself!
-Five of the respondents said they have kids in their household. Four of those respondents were homeowners, while one is a renter.
-By far, among homeowner and non-homeowner respondents, “Putting money toward something you do/will own” was the most appealing thing about owning a home.
Things I would have done differently in setting the survey up
-When it comes to actually analyzing the data, Qualtrics did a beautiful job of giving me plenty of charts and graph options to illustrate my results. To get the raw data, I had to look at each response individually and record them. I’m not super-experienced with Qualtrics, so maybe there is an easier way to do this, but I did not figure it out on this go-around.
-I had Skip Logic set up to take dissatisfied homeowner respondents to the question “What about owning a home does not appeal to you?” Since no one replied that they were dissatisfied with home ownership, I got no responses for this question. It would have been interesting to see what people disliked, along with what they liked, about home ownership. (Empty graph below)
-When taking my classmates’ surveys, I noticed that I forgot to set up a “Male or Female” demographic question. Not a horrible omission, but it would have added another interesting layer to the data. Also, I would have added more employment options such as “Retired” and “Stay at home parent.” These other responses just did not come to mind when I was creating that portion of the survey.
Concluding thoughts
The results of my survey, while a small sample, give me hope for home ownership in America. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who dreams of having a home someday, and it’s also nice to know that home ownership can be “very satisfying.” Like myself, it may take some of us a bit longer than others to get there, but our dream home is out there waiting for us.
amandaplaysjax 
Feb 07, 2014 @ 02:43:21
Interesting results! I am shocked to see that no one has been dissatisfied with the home owning process. That is good to know. I am currently in the process of purchasing my first home with my fiancé- it is a stressful process. I also am glad to see that people are interested in owning their own home and putting their money towards something will one day be theirs. I also would be interested to see if satisfied homeowners would have something to do with age and experience since most of them were older- I guess that part makes sense! Great survey and great information.
Feb 08, 2014 @ 20:00:08
Hi Casey,
Looking at the results, it sure seemed like the homeowners in their 40s-60s were the ones who were “very satisfied” — but there was one homeowner in their 20s who was “very satisfied” as well! This is where I would be interested in interviewing people because I can only guess that maybe the older homeowners have that attitude that they’ve been through many experiences with their home (good and bad) and that their lives have been enriched by home ownership. I can’t wait to be in that club someday!
Feb 08, 2014 @ 21:05:18
Just joined the club yesterday! Wish me luck!
Feb 12, 2014 @ 17:46:26
Congrats Casey,
You’ll have to share the wisdom you gain with me so I’ll know what to expect when I get there 🙂
Feb 07, 2014 @ 04:02:07
Hey Amanda,
I’m kind of jealous I didn’t think of this survey myself! I work for a mortgage company and some survey findings would have been very helpful.
I’m currently a renter who is very interested in purchasing my first home (more for the investment rather than to be a homeowner). I think it’s interesting to see that the older homeowners are generally more satisfied with their purchase. Obviously they have had plenty of time to reflect on their purchase and reap the benefits. Also, I could see a majority of parents being homeowners. Our upstairs neighbor has a child that runs across the floor at all hours of the day. I grew up with a huge yard and couldn’t imagine being cooped up in a small apartment. So it makes sense to me that more parents are homeowners rather than renters. Finally, like you, I did not include a gender question. I think it would have given me some additional useful insights as well.
All in all, the results were interesting and motivating. Good luck on your dream of homeownership!
Feb 08, 2014 @ 20:13:09
Hi Sean,
Like you said, I noticed that most of my survey respondents who had kids were also homeowners. I lived in an apartment from birth to age 7 and while I don’t think I missed out on anything, I think my parents would have ideally liked to have a house with a yard for me to play in. That is an interesting point you brought up about buying a home for an investment. I kind of touched on it with the answer “Putting money toward something you do/will own” but I didn’t explicitly give an option of “Buying a home for investment.” Thanks for the feedback!
Feb 07, 2014 @ 17:50:52
Amanda,
When you mentioned that you would like to further interview the participants that claimed that they were very satisfied with homeownership, I agree that having this qualitative form of information would be very useful to the survey. By only being able to create a limited number of questions for the survey, you only get limited answers. While this survey does give you insight on homeowners and renters, I feel that this topic would be best explored as a qualitative survey. The limited amount of knowledge is just one of the drawbacks of online surveys. I think that your survey would make an excellent foundation for creating a qualitative survey on the topic. Very interesting to see your results. When I was taking your survey last week, I was wondering what the results would look like. Great post!
Thanks,
Whitney
Feb 08, 2014 @ 20:32:12
Hi Whitney,
I agree that an online survey is just the first step, especially when exploring a topic such as home ownership that has many layers to it. Plus, I am a journalist and I enjoy talking to people, so it would be cool to hear the stories behind people’s home ownership and/or renting experiences. The initial results were very interesting though. I was very surprised that none of the home owners were dissatisfied with owning a home! Definitely a good jumping off point to explore further.