May 15, 2019
Millennials Increasing Homeownership Share
While it’s unclear whether we are truly on our way to a buyer’s market or merely encountering something more like a less extreme seller’s market, the fact is that the decrease in the high-pressure market we saw over the course of last year can only be good for the prospect of Millennials looking to enter the housing market. The fact is, given their high amount of loan debt and those inflated housing prices, we have seen fewer Millennials entering the market than their predecessors did at the same age. But this move toward affordability means people who have never entered the market before now may find they have a better chance of doing so.
And, indeed, this does seem to be what the numbers indicate. Elle Mae’s February Millennial Tracker reveals that, even despite interest rates beginning to rise and the ongoing high demand for housing among all generational sets, the number of purchase loans made in December of 2018 rose a full 4 percent year-over-year from December 2017, accounting for 88 percent of all loans closed by Millennials.
The surprising thing about this is that Millennials are not behaving warily toward the higher interest rates being seen during that purchase period—as high as 5.12 percent on average, which is the highest interest rate since Ellie Mae began tracking this cohort in 2016. It seems this generation of consumers is at long last becoming competitive in the housing market, even taking steps such as moving to areas where housing is more available, including what some might consider peculiar hotspots for home purchase activity. The top ten markets for Millennial purchases during the covered period were: Somerset, Pennsylvania; Odessa and Midland, Texas; Burley, Idaho; Williston, North Dakota; Fargo, North Dakota-Minnesota; Minot, North Dakota; Casper, Wyoming; Columbus, Indiana; and Dubuque, Iowa.
Millennials are nesting at last.
If you’re a Millennial looking to take advantage of the present market inventory and the price stability it provides to buy that perfect home, we here at Topouzis & Associates, P.C. offer not only the services that ensure your title gets conveyed clear of defects, but Owner’s Policies of title insurance. Contact us if you want your property transfer in Cranston, Rhode Island; Springfield, Massachusetts; or Miami, Florida to go through without a hitch—both before and after closing.