New Home Shoppers Show Greater Reluctance to Buy

New home shoppers showed a greater reluctance to buy this year than last, according to Vision ‘93, a survey of 4,000 shoppers at 78 subdivisions by 46 builders throughout California.

One-quarter of shoppers surveyed said there was “no chance” of them purchasing in the next six months of 1993, as compared to 1992, when 18% of shoppers reported no intention to buy, according to the survey, which was released Wednesday at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco.

Among other findings of the 1993 survey:

--13% of shoppers felt the economy would get better in the near future, a sharp drop from 1992, when 33% of survey participants felt the same.

--35% said there was a 75% or greater likelihood that they would buy a home in the next six months.

--86% of shoppers said they wanted a detached home, but that was more important in Northern California (92%) than in the Southland (73%).

--Southern Californians were much more likely to say they were looking for a two-story house than Northern California shoppers.

--27% of shoppers said they would use an extra room for a home office.

--68% of Southland home shoppers say they own or will soon buy a home computer, and 24% of all shoppers say they now or will soon have a home fax machine.

--One-third of home shoppers said they owned or planned to buy a wide-screen television.

--Design and layout of the kitchen was considered the most important factor related to the purchase of a new home. A close second was the uniqueness of the house’s floor plan.

--The additional feature most frequently chosen by shoppers was rear-yard landscaping for $2,000, following by a laundry room sink for $500, instant hot water throughout the house for $700 and a third-car garage for $6,000.

Heading the Vision ’93 survey were Robert Mirman, president of National Survey Systems, Irvine; John Schleimer, president of Market Perspectives, El Dorado Hills; Ava Busby of Color Design Art, Pacific Palisades, and Jeff Meyers, president of the Meyers Group, Newport Beach.