Home is where the heart is: 42% of recent home buyers find love after moving

Big-city buyers are three times more likely to find love than buyers in the suburbs

SEATTLE, Feb. 6, 2024 -- This Valentine's Day, a new Zillow® survey is challenging the conventional order of love, marriage and homeownership. More than 2 in 5 recent home buyers (42%) report finding love after buying their new home. The share is even higher for Gen Z (64%), millennial (49%) and first-time (51%) buyers.

Contrary to the made-for-TV romance movie trope, recent buyers are more than twice as likely to find love in the big city than in the country. In a plot twist, nearly 70% of recent buyers who found love after their move reported buying in an urban area (68%), compared to 33% who settled down in a rural area and only 22% who bought in the burbs.

"Life events like coupling up and falling in love often prompt households to buy a home," said Manny Garcia, a senior population scientist at Zillow. "What we found is that love does not just prompt home buying, but home buying appears to prompt love as well. Homeownership can provide financial security, a stable foundation and a place to create lifelong memories. For many buyers, it also appears to be, at least in part, the springboard to putting down roots and finding love."

Perhaps money can buy you love - and a home. Buyers with an annual household income of at least $100,000 were about twice as likely to report finding love since buying their new home, with 58% reporting such a connection. In contrast, only 28% of recent buyers with incomes of less than $50,000 said they found love after their move.

One possible explanation is that higher-income buyers tend to be younger, and the youngest generations were the most likely to report finding love after moving. Recent buyers with the median income of $100,000 and above were between 9 and 11 years younger than those with incomes of less than $50,000.

Nearly half of single, never-married home buyers said they fell in love after moving into their new home (47%), while divorced, separated or widowed home buyers are the least likely to report finding love after moving (9%).

Gender dynamics also appear to be at play. Male buyers are about twice as likely as female buyers to report falling in love since moving into their new homes — 55% versus 28%.

Survey methodology

Zillow Group Population Science conducted a nationally representative survey of 901 successful and 993 prospective buyers. The study was fielded in September and October 2023. For more information on survey methodology, contact [email protected].

About Zillow Group

Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people. As the most visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow and its affiliates help people find and get the home they want by connecting them with digital solutions, great partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences.

Zillow Group's affiliates, subsidiaries and brands include Zillow®, Zillow Premier Agent®, Zillow Home Loans℠, Trulia®, Out East®, StreetEasy®, HotPads®, ShowingTime+℠, Spruce® and Follow Up Boss®.