{ "question": "How do people find the home they buy?", "answer": "52% of US home buyers found the home they bought online in the National Association of REALTORS' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (purchases from July 2024 to June 2025), and 70% searched on a phone or tablet. In the 2024 Profile, 29% found their home through an agent and 8% through a friend, relative or neighbor.", "period": "Jul 2024-Jun 2025", "key_numbers": [ { "value": "52%", "label": "Of US home buyers found the home they bought online", "note": "NAR 2025 Profile, Jul 2024-Jun 2025", "stat": "real-estate/buyers-found-home-online" }, { "value": "70%", "label": "Of US home buyers used a mobile phone or tablet in their search", "note": "NAR 2025 Profile, Jul 2024-Jun 2025", "stat": "real-estate/buyers-mobile-search" }, { "value": "29%", "label": "Of buyers found the home they bought through a real estate agent", "note": "NAR 2024 Profile, Jul 2023-Jun 2024" }, { "value": "10 weeks", "label": "Median time buyers spent searching for a home", "note": "NAR 2025 Profile" } ], "tables": [ { "id": "search-2025", "title": "How US home buyers searched, NAR 2025 Profile", "columns": [ "Measure", "Value" ], "rows": [ [ "Buyers who found the home they bought online", "52%" ], [ "Buyers who used a mobile phone or tablet during their search", "70%" ], [ "Median length of the home search", "10 weeks" ], [ "Buyers who bought through a real estate agent or broker", "88%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "found-online-2025", "mobile-2025", "weeks-2025", "agent-2025" ], "note": "Purchases of a home to live in from July 2024 to June 2025. The first two rows are from NAR's product page for the 2025 Profile (the full tables are paid for non-members); the last two are from the 2025 Profile highlights PDF.", "source": "nar" }, { "id": "search-2024", "title": "Where buyers found their home and how they started, NAR 2024 Profile", "columns": [ "Measure", "Share of buyers" ], "rows": [ [ "Found the home they bought through online searches", "51%" ], [ "Found the home through a real estate agent", "29%" ], [ "Found the home through a friend, relative or neighbor", "8%" ], [ "First step: looked online at properties for sale", "43%" ], [ "First step: contacted a real estate agent", "21%" ], [ "Used a mobile phone or tablet in the search", "69%" ], [ "Used a real estate agent as an information source", "86%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "found-online-2024", "found-agent-2024", "found-friend-2024", "first-online-2024", "first-agent-2024", "mobile-2024", "agent-info-2024" ], "note": "NAR 2024 Profile highlights PDF, purchases from July 2023 to June 2024. The highlights do not list the remaining places buyers found their home (for example yard signs, builders or open houses).", "source": "nar" }, { "id": "website-features-2024", "title": "Website features buyers found very useful, NAR 2024 Profile", "columns": [ "Feature", "Share of buyers who found it very useful" ], "rows": [ [ "Photos", "41%" ], [ "Detailed information about properties for sale", "39%" ], [ "Floor plans", "31%" ], [ "Open houses (as an information source)", "23%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "feature-photos", "feature-details", "feature-floor-plans", "feature-open-houses" ], "note": "NAR 2024 Profile highlights PDF. Open houses are an information source rather than a website feature; NAR lists them in the same section.", "source": "nar" }, { "id": "zillow-search-2026", "title": "How US buyers searched, Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026", "columns": [ "Measure", "Share of buyers" ], "rows": [ [ "Used at least one online shopping resource (website, mobile site or app)", "92%" ], [ "Searched on a mobile website on a smartphone or tablet", "80%" ], [ "Searched on a website on a laptop or desktop computer", "75%" ], [ "Searched on an app on a smartphone or tablet", "74%" ], [ "First homebuying activity: contacted a real estate agent", "46%" ], [ "First homebuying activity: contacted a mortgage lender", "29%" ], [ "Median length of the home search", "2-3 months" ] ], "row_ids": [ "zillow-online-any", "zillow-mobile-web", "zillow-desktop-web", "zillow-app", "zillow-first-agent", "zillow-first-lender", "zillow-search-length" ], "note": "Zillow's Buyers results from the Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026 (published 14 Oct 2026); buyers who bought a home in the past year. The first-activity question lists steps such as contacting an agent or lender, pre-approval, open houses and tours, but not looking at listings online, so it does not match NAR's first-step question. Zillow's buyer results do not report where buyers found the home they bought.", "source": "zillow-chtr" }, { "id": "zillow-online-history", "title": "Online resources buyers used when searching, Zillow survey by year", "columns": [ "Survey year", "Website on a computer", "Mobile website", "App on a phone or tablet" ], "rows": [ [ "2019", "73%", "60%", "51%" ], [ "2020", "76%", "64%", "55%" ], [ "2021", "82%", "74%", "68%" ], [ "2022", "80%", "75%", "68%" ], [ "2023", "82%", "84%", "77%" ], [ "2024", "80%", "80%", "72%" ], [ "2025", "80%", "79%", "73%" ], [ "2026", "75%", "80%", "74%" ] ], "row_ids": [ "zillow-online-2019", "zillow-online-2020", "zillow-online-2021", "zillow-online-2022", "zillow-online-2023", "zillow-online-2024", "zillow-online-2025", "zillow-online-2026" ], "note": "Zillow's Buyers results from the Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026, table of online resources used when searching. Buyers can use more than one, so rows do not add up to 100%.", "source": "zillow-chtr" }, { "id": "search-history", "title": "How buyers started and ended their search, NAR Profile by year", "columns": [ "Profile", "First step: looked online", "First step: contacted an agent", "Found the home online", "Median weeks searching", "Median homes viewed" ], "rows": [ [ "2022 Profile", "47%", "18%", "Not published", "10", "5" ], [ "2023 Profile", "41%", "20%", "Not published", "10", "7" ], [ "2024 Profile", "43%", "21%", "51%", "10", "7" ], [ "2025 Profile", "Not published", "Not published", "52%", "10", "Not published" ] ], "row_ids": [ "profile-2022", "profile-2023", "profile-2024", "profile-2025" ], "note": "Each figure as printed in that year's free Profile highlights (2025 online share from NAR's product page for the 2025 Profile). 'Not published' means the free highlights for that year do not give the figure. Each Profile covers July to June purchases, for example July 2024 to June 2025 for the 2025 Profile. The 2022 Profile says the search grew to 10 weeks from 8 weeks in the 2020 and 2021 reports.", "source": "nar" } ], "sources": [ { "name": "Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; Generational Trends; Existing-Home Sales", "publisher": "National Association of REALTORS", "type": "industry", "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/" }, { "name": "2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (product page)", "publisher": "National Association of REALTORS", "type": "industry", "url": "https://store.realtor/" }, { "name": "Consumer Housing Trends Report (Buyers and Sellers results)", "publisher": "Zillow Research (Zillow Group)", "type": "vendor", "url": "https://www.zillow.com/research/consumer-housing-trends-report-methodology/" } ], "content_changed_on": "2026-11-01", "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/real-estate/how-buyers-find-homes", "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/real-estate/how-buyers-find-homes.csv" }