The most common words found in home listings in 2022

In 2022, home buyers browsing online listings had one overarching item on their wish list: space.

Words such as spacious, open, and space were the most widely used in home descriptions, according to a report by the national real estate search portal Point2. The company analyzed more than 52 million words from listings of homes for sale and rent across the country that were active in August 2022 on its website. Researchers ranked keywords based on how often they appeared in home descriptions.

In the Northeast part of the country, full bath, garage, and yard were the most popular phrases in home listings in 2022, followed by basement, storage, and patio or porch.

The desire for space carried through from last year, when garages, walk-in closets, and full baths replaced hardwood floors, granite countertops, and stainless-steel appliances as the three most popular features in home listings nationwide.

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“2022′s most-used housing keywords speak to our substantial need for breathable living spaces — a need that’s been cemented in the past two years, signaling that the pandemic period is still influencing some of today’s housing trends,” Alexandra Ciuntu, a writer at Point2 and author of the report, said in a statement.

Also, in the Philadelphia region, the rapidly growing life sciences industry is attracting older millennial professionals with larger and growing families and space requirements, which can account for some of the popularity of these keywords, said Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at the real estate data company Yardi Matrix. Point2 is a division of Yardi Systems Inc.

Of the amenities mentioned in home descriptions in 2022, the garage was the most popular nationwide.

“Having a garage has long been an ingrained necessity for home seekers — particularly with the car becoming indispensable for many during the pandemic,” Ciuntu said.

Given the frequency of inclement weather in the Northeast part of the country, the popularity of garages and parking there isn’t surprising, Ressler said.

“While enough parking space was understandably the most popular amenity of the year,” Ciuntu said, “having green space such as a patio/porch or a yard became hugely popular in home descriptions, given their boost in popularity” during the pandemic.

Any kind of outdoor space, such as roof decks, entices Philadelphia buyers, said Dara Ellis, real estate broker of record at Philadelphia-based RE/MAX @ Home. And garages always fetch a premium.

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But given higher mortgage interest rates and home prices in 2022 compared with 2021, buyers have been looking for ways to save money, and they’re searching for clues in home descriptions, she said.

“In today’s market, buyers like seller’s assist, where the sellers give them money toward closing costs to make their life a little easier,” Ellis said. This kind of assistance largely disappeared during the highly competitive seller’s market and low interest rates that marked most of the pandemic, but it’s come back as the market has slowed.

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Ellis also has found that buyers are interested in fireplaces, which ranked seventh behind patios or porches among the most popular keywords in the Northeast.

“They’re buying the dream,” Ellis said. “It’s not just shelter. It’s the whole romance of, ‘Can I sit with my family by the fireplace with hot cocoa?’”

In the Northeast region, hardwood floors, walk-in closets, and open floor plans rounded out the top 10 keywords in 2022.