Millennials surprise experts

Hold onto your seat!  Echo Boom (aka Millennial) births peaked in 1990 and as adults, their numbers are moving into the age of marriage and children of their own.  And they want a house to call home.  Just like the idea that people won't want want or need automobiles, when it comes to housing, the Central Planners have it wrong.

For generations, the goal was for a family to own their own home.  Homeownership solidifies a community and gives families and neighborhoods alike stability, social connection and safety.  Human needs don't change.

In desire for homeownership, millennials not so different after all, study finds
The Oregonian, September 16, 2014  By Eliot Njus

Real estate agent Amanda Haworth, right, shows a home in Southeast Portland. (Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian/2012) 

The conventional wisdom has been that millennials, who came of age in the middle of the Great Recession and a deep housing crash, might be turned off to homeownership.

Gleaning some knowledge of this generation's habits and preferences is critical to developers, builders and planners. According to the institute, about 8.5 million new millennial households will be formed by 2018, and in the meantime millennials will spend $1.6 trillion on renting and buying homes.

Other findings from the survey:

• 88 percent of millennial households own a car.
• Millennials have little saved for a down payment on a home, but they're open to new approaches to home finance. Most (69 percent) said they would consider a potentially risky lease-to-own arrangement.
• 36 percent of millennials say they plan to buy their next home. Another 26 plan to rent single-family houses, while 36 percent plan to rent in multifamily apartment buildings. Only 2 percent plan to buy condos in multifamily buildings.

Student debt and a rough start in the workforce may delay homeownership for millennials, The Demand Institute acknowledged, but it isn't likely to forestall it completely.