Thanks for the data sdrealtor, this is fun. Turns out the averages for your three examples are 13.2, 13.6, and 10.3. The medians are 13.6, 11, and 9.5.
Certainly higher than your current 8 years, around my max of 10, and kind of in between what I understand the actual average to be and the 20+ figure that you suggest is so common. I’ll admit that with 15 of the 76 at 20 or more years, that’s twice as many my personal estimate of 5 in 50 (20% vs. 10%), but hey, I only have 4 sets of grandparents and my parents like buying houses. What can I say!
I did find it a little curious that you mentioned prior owners when they exceed 5 years, but never when they were less. Come on, there had to be quite a few of those! I understand that your point is that it’s these short timers that throw everything off, but if you’re going to ignore one set of outliers…
But while I’m throwing stones, I also now realize that the street I picked doesn’t seem much more than 20 years old, so that makes it just a *little* bit harder to find owners who have held that long on that street (and the data seems to bear that out).
Anyway, it’s been fun and I agree with you that most people ultimately end up in a house for many years, but it’s usually just one house and it takes several to get there. So while it’s probably safe to say that most people are looking for a home to grow old in, often times, the next one isn’t it.
