Among other demographic variables, such as age, income, or stage of life, a buyer’s race or ethnicity can play a significant role in how he/she evaluates the characteristics and features of a prospective home.  A new study recently released by NAHB, What Home Buyers Really Want: Ethnic Preferences, was designed to compare and contrast how housing preferences are affected– or not –by the racial/ethnic background of the home buyer, after controlling for factors such as age and income.  The analysis focused on four racial/ethnic groups of buyers:

• White (Non-Hispanic),
• African-American (non-Hispanic),
• Hispanic, and
• Asian.

Survey results corroborate well-known demographic differences between these groups:

• Minority home buyers are younger than White (non-Hispanic) buyers: the median African-American buyer is 39 years old, the median Hispanic buyer is 37, and the median Asian buyer is 36. The median White buyer is 43 years old.
• Asian home buyers have the highest median household…