Dogs Considered ‘Family Members’, Cats Losing Out in Recession?
It has long been debated amongst pet owners which species best accompanies man in his domestic dwelling. It has been an intense and unrelenting debate most likely due to the fact that– as in academic politics–the contention is so vicious precisely because the stakes are so low.
We recently conducted a study of our internal search data, which we run each quarter. The report shows for which amenities and property features renters are searching. Click here for the MyNewPlace search results page with amenity search filters highlighted below by the red circle as well as the major category filters of number of beds, number of bathrooms, property type (rental home, condo, apartment) and the filter to which this post is dedicated, pet friendly apartments.
One especially interesting period that we wanted to track changes over was the time since the beginning of the recession, which technically began in December 2007. While we did see many changes in search trends from that time until our latest recorded data (Q2 2009), one of the most interesting changes was how the number of pet searches changed.
Taking both a national median value as well as examining trends in 35 of the nation’s top metros, it appears incontrovertible that while searches for cat friendly apartments dropped across the board, searches for dog friendly apartments remained relatively stable.
The conclusions that can be drawn from this are pretty obvious. When faced with financial hardship and economic uncertainty, cats don’t quite make it inside the wagon circle. Apparently dogs are considered more “family members” than are cats. A harsh reality, perhaps, but these numbers are difficult to dispute.
In somewhat related news, I am moving to a 3 bedroom apartment to save on rent, anyone want to adopt this cat?
Matt DiChiara is with MyNewPlace.com is a dynamic online marketplace for apartment rentals, featuring a free-to-use apartment finder to search its database of over six million listings.
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