September 20, 2019
How Do Older and Younger Millennials Differ in Homebuying Preferences?
It may come as no surprise that, when we divide age groups into “generations,” some of the initial divisions made will come under question. Sometimes the initial criteria used to group people by the age-group turn out to be less important to such qualities as purchasing and selling habits as criteria not initially considered.
Such appears to be the case with the wide swath of individuals lumped into the group we know as first time home buyers “Millennials.”
In the National Association of Realtors report on generational trends released in April, the Association found it useful to break this generation, which overall was grouped by year of birth starting in around 1980 and ending in around 1998, into an “Older Millennials” sub-group (born between 1980 and 1989) and a “Younger Millennial” subgroup (born 1990-1998). And once this distinction was made, some stark trends emerged.
Before subdividing the generation, the report reveals, the overall group made up a full 37 percent of home buyers. But parsing the groups into two “sub-generations” revealed differences.
For example, when looking at shares of buyers and sellers by generation in early 2019, the percentage of Young Millennials who were buyers came in at 11 percent. They were only 2 percent of home sellers. 86 percent of Young Millennials were first-time buyers.
Older Millennials, on the other hand, made up a full 26 percent of home purchasers. And their share of home sales came in at 18 percent. Looked at this way, Older Millennials actually outpaced Generation X in the percentage of home purchases (Gen X had only 24 percent of these), though they did still fall behind Generation X in home sales (Gen X made 25 percent of these). 52 percent of Older Millennials were first-time buyers.
And Older Millennials are showing signs that they are accepting “traditional” signs of maturation and buying habits. This group had the largest share of married buyers, at 69 percent. They also were most likely to have children under 18 years of age living at home (an unsurprising 58 percent).
Whether you’re an Older or Younger Millennial, when you buy a house you want to be sure your purchase comes with a clear title, in order to avoid problems at closing. Topouzis & Associates P.C. is your bulwark against problems of the past. We do title searches and ensure you are gaining clear title to your property—and we back our services with offerings of title insurance (click here), in case someone along the line of ownership did something that will weaken your claim to title at some point in the future.
