Amount of first home buyers searches dropping in more ways than one
There have been few Google searches for the term “first home buyer” over the past few years with that segment of buyers increasingly dropping out of the market.
Plotting Google searches on the term “first home buyer” compared with Australian Bureau of Statistics data on the proportion of home mortgages taken out by first-time buyers shows a fall in interest in the search term corresponding to the drop in buyers. Related phrases such as first home owner grant yield similar results.
The peak in first home buyer activity in 2009 was preceded by a clear spike in internet searches on the subject.
There was a minor lift in the number of searches on first home buyers around mid-2012, in line with a slight lift in buyer numbers, but aside from that blip, the term has been as absent from Google searches as the buyers have been from the market.
