Not only do Americans think their homes are too small, but many wish they had done more research before purchasing, as 80% have at least one regret about their home purchase, a new survey by HSH.com shows.
“Compromise is often key in successfully buying a house,” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a source of mortgage data, trends, news and analysis. “Over time, though, some compromises can turn into annoyances and even regrets.”
Among respondents’ top-five regrets are size, with 15.5% saying their house is too small; a lack of storage or closets (9.2%); concerns about neighbors (8.3%), not enough bathrooms (8.2%) and poor school systems (7.15%).
“In some cases, changes can be made to smooth out the rough edges via home improvements and such, or a homeowner can learn to live with these shortcomings,” Gumbinger said. “In others, curing these irritants may require a full rethinking of the decision to buy a given home in a given location, and a move to another home may be in order.”
Other reports have recently warned against rushing into a mortgage, saying that homeowners may end up with regrets if they have tunnel vision during the buying process.
While many of the 2,000 respondents in the HSH.com survey said they did their homework on several issues, there were large percentages who regretted not researching sex offender registries (30.1%), neighborhood/neighbors (25.95%), home insurance cost (21.9%) and property taxes (20.25%), among other issues.
Despite these regrets, which almost 95% of the survey respondents said they think about at least occasionally, 66.4% of Americans said they would buy their current home again, and nearly 68% said that they are not planning on moving within the next five years.
Written by Emily Study
