Can home buying lead to romance?

Can buying a home lead to romance for the new property owner? In a case of life imitating a Hallmark Channel movie, a new survey by Zillow (NASDAQ:Z, ZG) found more than two in five recent home buyers (42%) reported finding love after buying their new home – and that share is higher for Gen Z (64%), millennial (49%) and first-time (51%) buyers.

But unlike the small screen dramas where romance blooms in bucolic smaller towns, Zillow found recent buyers were more than twice as likely to find love in the big city than in the country – 68% of recent buyers found love after their move to an urban area, compared to 33% who settled down in a rural area and 22% who bought in the suburbs.

However, the survey also found 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.

“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.”

Zillow’s survey polled 901 successful and 993 prospective buyers during last September and October.

Photo: Rafael de la Fuente and Katie Leclerc in Hallmark Channel’s movie “Letters to Santa”; photo courtesy Mood Independent/H9 Films/Hallmark Media