‘Home Is Where You Spend’: How Your Neighborhood Shapes Your Buying Habits

Your home isn't just where you live; it's also where you spend the majority of your money, a new study from financial technology platform Bilt has found.

Bilt partnered with 451 Research and S&P Global on the 2026 State of the Neighborhood survey, aimed at exploring consumer spending habits. Around two-thirds of the 6,951 survey participants conducted at least 80% of their "everyday spending" within 15 miles of their homes, and 92% of those surveyed planned on spending the same or more at local businesses in the coming months.

That's not surprising, given the results of a recent Re/Max survey, which found that 29% of prospective homeowners valued proximity to grocery stores and shopping, while 20% said they valued having restaurants and cafes nearby.

More than half of all survey respondents said future neighborhood development, including new housing or retail development, was "very important" to how they chose where to buy a home.

The results of the Bilt survey spell good news for small businesses in popular residential areas, suggesting that physical stores close to dense residential neighborhoods may continue to thrive in the age of online shopping.

"The disconnect between what people talk about versus where people actually spend is quite significant," Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Bilt, tells Realtor.com®. "When you you look at the stats, all online shopping in the U.S. is $1.3 trillion a year. But offline, small- and medium-business local retail and food spending is $6.6 trillion."

On a quarterly basis, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that broke down to $340.2 billion in online spending in the second quarter, making up 17.1% of total consumer spending.

Bilt's study found that 70% of food and grocery spending is still made in person.

Consumers spent an average of $375 on in-person grocery shopping each month. They spent an additional $175 on in-person dining and takeout and another $175 on in-person general shopping. Study participants reported spending an average of $50 each on entertainment and recreation; health and personal care; and transportation.

Sixty-six percent of survey respondents said they were were actively looking to support local businesses over big-box and online retailers and were willing to spend more to support them.

A recent report on consumer spending habits around the holidays from research firm Epsilon found that Gen Z in particular values in-store options for gift shopping. And while online shopping is still, overall, the preferred method for gift shopping, the study found that consumers across all generatios are doing the majority of their food and decoration shopping in person. Furthermore, they spent about an equal amount of their holiday clothing budgets online and in store.

Americans still do the bulk of their grocery shopping and dining out within 15 miles of where they live, a new study finds. (Getty Images)

One possible reason for the continued primacy of in-person shopping is consumers' paradoxical relationship with artificial intelligence marketing.

Research from McKinsey found that AI continues to drive sales and that AI usage in completing purchases climbed 70% year over year. However, younger, more tech-native shoppers "tend to be more skeptical of AI on average," the report found. (Sixty-seven percent of American Gen Z AI users trust AI chat and search tools versus the global average of 73%.)

The study was conducted in advance of Bilt launching a new AI-driven membership platform for local businesses that allows them to build customer loyalty through localized rewards programs.

"We are betting pretty big on the neighborhood versus online commerce," Jain says. "There is a huge gap between what the media and the Silicon Valley world talk about versus how real Americans are living. People talk about AI as 'How are we going to do online commerce AI and replace coding and jobs and all this stuff.' The truth is, the biggest beneficiaries of AI can be the local mom and pop businesses who don't have the ability to hire 2,000 people to go compete with, like, a Walmart or Amazon online.

"Everything is tied together. The more you can invest in the neighborhood, the more value you create in the housing. The more housing you have, the more you can invest in the neighborhood," he adds.