Millennials are one of the fastest-growing demographics in the housing market, and with this growth have come several changes to the way homes are bought and sold. With a higher household average income than previous generations have had in the last 50 years, millennials are shaping the modern home market in more ways than one.
Here are a few things you should know about what millennials look for when buying a home and how their homebuying process looks different than other generations:
Millennials look for new homes with the latest technology: Smart home concepts are on the rise, and this is especially true with the millennial generation of homebuyers. An estimated 36% of millennial homebuyers have smart-home features installed or have purchased a smart home. Another 58% of millennials have a smart home in their sights. Smart home features that millennials look for include wirelessly connected locks and security systems, smart ovens, smart lights, smart refrigerators, and smart electrical monitoring. New homes are even being built with empty conduits to allow for transmission and control cabling installations.
Sustainability: Sustainability is a hot topic today, and millennials are making it a priority in the homes they shop for. Popular sustainable features of homes that millennials are buying include solar panels, efficient appliances, and efficient home features. All of these sustainable attributes contribute to reduced energy consumption and can even decrease home energy usage by up to 50%.
Digital homebuying process: Millennials are considered the champions of the digital world, and the homebuying process is no different. Millennials often seek out homebuying opportunities that can be done digitally. Everything from touring a home to applying for a mortgage to getting home insurance can be done online, and this is often the route that millennials take throughout the process of finding and buying a home.
As a response to this trend, lenders have introduced digital mortgage platforms, home insurers are using artificial intelligence to offer insurance policies, and real estate agents are designing digital home-touring options that allow millennials to shop for homes from the comfort of their residence.
Long-term home shopping: Another trend that's been seen among millennial homebuyers is that this generation will spend more than a year searching for their new house. This generation tends to be very particular as to what type of attributes they look for in a home (see the above topics) and will take as much time as needed to find a home that meets their preferences. And, millennials are willing to wait for their dream home to be built. An estimated 41% of this generation preferred to purchase a brand-new house in 2018 alone.
Source: Core Logic