During the keynote address, Perriello recommended that brokers focus on the demographic he refers to as “shadow buyers.”
“As you run your local companies, you should know who these people are,” he explained. “Shadow buyers are the people who did short sales in ’09, ’10, ’11 and ’12, whose credit was damaged for a period of time. These people were homeowners and they’re now renting and paying on time in the hopes of becoming a homeowner again. If you add up the numbers from these four years, it equates to 2 million new buyers coming into the market.”
Perriello also expects household formation to increase due to would-be homeowners who “put their lives on hold” because of economic hardship. “Moving into 2014, household formation is going to increase back into the 1.2 – 1.3 million range.”
Also driving household formation are millennials and immigrants, added Perriello. “People don’t immigrate to this country with the dream of renting a house.”
