Realtors: Buyers prefer smart growth to sprawl

In what may be the most incisive research survey of consumer preference real estate in recent years, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that Americans prefer smart growth to conventional suburbia by a 56 percent to 43 percent margin. In a neutrally worded, carefully calibrated nationwide survey of 2,000 people, NAR allowed respondents to choose between a series of characteristics associated with sprawl and smart growth.

The NAR survey makes clear, perhaps better than any other one conducted, how many competing and conflicting choices buyers weigh in home purchases. For example, 80 percent of people prefer a single-family house on a large lot. And, 87 percent of respondents say that privacy from neighbors is an important concern in choosing a house. If the NAR went no further than that, we could say case closed — Americans prefer sprawl.

On the other side, 78 percent of buyers said a short commute — 30 minutes or less — is an important consideration. Places to walk, such as a grocery store (75 percent), pharmacy (65 percent), hospital (61 percent), and restaurants (60 percent), are strongly preferred by house buyers. Most telling — and this may have been the first time anyone has ever

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