New home lot supply drops to cycle lows
Millennials are gaining homebuying market share each year. The largest living generation is aging into prime homeownership years and will drive the housing market going forward so sifted through the cohort’s preferences to identify the ten most desirable markets.
The actual definition of a Millennial varies by source. For our purposes, we are looking at those born between 1980 and 2000. Right now, the largest share of Millennials is just under 30 years old, contributing to the demographic wave that is still in the early stages. For example, the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows:
With the depressed but increasing homeownership rate, Millennials are critical to understand. To help provide answers, we conducted our third annual Millennial survey in January. The national survey’s focus is on the everyday Millennial regardless of their living situation (own, rent, live with parents, dorm, etc).
This year, we added a new question to our survey: Have you seriously considered moving out of your current city? If yes, to where and why? Much to our surprise, nearly 60% of our respondents said yes. Of those respondents:
Regardless of the city of origin, the driving factors to move included job opportunities (30% of respondents), affordability (20%), and lifestyle (12%). Using this information, we created an index to capture the markets most poised for Millennial success. See the map below and the index details at the bottom of this article.
Our index data overlaps with three of the top five desired markets highlighted by Millennials in our survey (Denver, Washington, DC, and Seattle). While affordability is certainly a factor in considering where to live, job opportunities, or at least perceived job opportunities, play a higher role.