Those moving house appear to like where they live, with a half of all homebuyers moving just nine miles or less from a previous address.
Half of All Homebuyers Move Just Nine Miles or Less
The figures arrive from home removals website Reallymoving.com, based on 200,000 quotes.
The average distance moved by Reallymoving.com customers was 52 miles last year, down from 55 miles in 2014.
According to the site, over two-fifths of all movers were first time buyers, up from 37% in 2014.
However, the amount that first time buyers have been paying for a property, as a proportion of the average house price, has been in decline.
In 2014, the average first timer paid 79% of the price paid by other buyers. But in 2015, the typical first time buyer property cost £202,000 – three-quarters of the average house price paid by other buyers, says Reallymoving.com.
The Chief Executive of Reallymoving.com, Rob Houghton, comments on the data: “It’s good to see the increase in first time buyers, although large areas of the country remain prohibitively expensive for many.
“Until planning regulations are changed to allow more properties to be built, we don’t see much prospect of a significant change in this.
“We’re also encouraged to see the average distance of home movers continue to drop. Our belief is that as the jobs market improves, people are not having to move as far to find work.”1
Have you moved home recently? If so, how far away did you move?
1 http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/half-of-all-home-movers-go-just-nine-miles-or-less/