HUT HUT! While buying a home is no picnic, for some Americans, their NFL team has a lot to do with the buying process. According to recent research from Realtor.com, more than half (55%) of NFL fans say that supporting a local team makes them feel more connected to their city and neighborhood community, while roughly 1 in 5 indicate that their loyalty played an extremely significant or highly significant impact in their home shopping process.
According to a survey of NFL fans, some 18% say their loyalty greatly or extremely influenced their search for particular home features, like a built-in bar or covered porch; 20% say the same about the layout of the house or rooms, like a basement or theater room; and 18% say the same about city or neighborhood near a stadium.
Community is very important to football fans, respondents said. According to 66% of NFL fans, watching football is more enjoyable when people in their neighborhood or community support the same team, some 61% say it was important to them to support a local team, and 55% believe that supporting the same team gives them feel a sense of community and neighborhood.
“When it comes to NFL fans and the teams they support, a connection to their community is a major driving force and influence,” said Charlie Lankston, Executive Editor and Real Estate Expert at Realtor.com. “Creating a home is about so much more than buying a physical property—it is also about the community that we build around it. Our new survey shows that football and NFL play a vital role in how we see that community. And that team loyalty is actually less important to most people than their home and the people who surround it. So much so that nearly one-third of NFL fans would actually change teams if they moved to a new city or state.”
HIKE! Superfans and Team Loyalty Influencing Homebuyers
Although 44% of NFL fans say that they support a team because of their club’s success, personal motivations are nearly as important. 40% of supporters claim that the team represents the state or city in which they were born and raised, 39% claim that their family has always supported the team, 38% claim that the team represents the state or city in which they currently reside, and 29% claim that their friends or community support the team.
The majority of NFL fans watch games at home, according to the survey. Just 4% of all followers say they don’t watch games at home, while 67% say they do so in a communal or multipurpose place like a living room or family room, 29% say they have a specific area for doing so, like a finished basement or theater room, and 29% say they don’t.
One in five NFL fans are regarded as super fans, and their fandom had a greater impact on their house hunt. Some 20% of respondents said they were either extremely or highly influenced to look for a home with a layout or rooms conducive to watching football, such as a home theater, basement, or multipurpose room; eighteen percent said they were extremely or highly influenced to look for a home with specific home viewing features, like a covered porch or built-in bar; and eighteen percent said they were extremely or highly influenced to look for a home within a specific location, such as neighborhoods near stadiums or specific cities.
Generational loyalty also plays a part in the home shopping process. The most likely to claim that their fandom affected their home hunt were Gen Z and millennial fans. While 29% of millennials say they were very motivated to hunt for particular house plans or rooms, 28% of Gen Z followers say they were highly affected to search for specific home features.
To read the full report, including more data, charts, and methodology, click here.
