Looking for Love? Buy a Home

SEATTLE – Rom Coms may have it all wrong.

Despite the romance movie trope of the single person finding love after moving to a quiet country home, a new Zillow survey found home buyers are more than twice as likely to find love in the big city.  In fact, nearly 70% of recent buyers who found love after their move reported buying in an urban area (68%), compared to 33% who settled down in a rural area and only 22% who bought in the burbs.

In its Valentine’s Day survey, Zillow said the results challenge the conventional order of love, marriage and homeownership.  More than two in five recent home buyers (42%) report finding love after buying their new home. The share is even higher for Gen Z (64%), millennial (49%) and first-time (51%) buyers.

"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." 

Perhaps money can buy you love - and a home. 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.

One possible explanation is that higher-income buyers tend to be younger, and the youngest generations were the most likely to report finding love after moving. Recent buyers with the median income of $100,000 and above were between 9 and 11 years younger than those with incomes of less than $50,000.

Nearly half of single, never-married home buyers said they fell in love after moving into their new home (47%), while divorced, separated or widowed home buyers are the least likely to report finding love after moving (9%).

Gender dynamics also appear to be at play. Male buyers are about twice as likely as female buyers to report falling in love since moving into their new homes — 55% versus 28%. 

Zillow Group Population Science conducted a nationally representative survey of 901 successful and 993 prospective buyers. The study was fielded in September and October 2023.

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