| Ah, the Millennials. So confusing to their predecessor generations! Such a challenge to understand and anticipate their capricious whims! They’re just so – if we’re being kind – inscrutable!
Except, as it turns out, they’re not. A nationwide study of Millennials found the dream of homeownership is alive and thriving. And yet the respondents, flying completely in the face of their assumed “we can do anything” attitude, aren’t sure how to go about the process, or if they are even capable of it.
A joint venture between Builder magazine and Pardee Homes surveyed Millennials nationwide. The results, released in September, found that 82 percent of respondents were worried about making the wrong decision when buying a house. While the survey didn’t make clear whether that meant the decision in terms of the physical building or the expensive of the purchase, it’s clear Millennials are scared of buying a house.
Which is, it must be said, a perfectly logical fear. Today’s potential first-time buyers lived through the Great Recession – nationwide, they saw their parents’ houses lose value at a rate unprecedented in this nation’s history. The reassurances from historians and economists that “this too shall pass” means nothing to those who have never had such a shock. The Boomers have lived through recessions and stock market crashes; experience tells them that though things may be hard now, circumstance will eventually improve. The first time a young adult experiences such a cold economic truth is not one easily forgotten.
It’s also likely that this generation, and subsequent ones, will never see the kind of economic boost from homeownership their parents and grandparents realized, particularly in Greater Boston. Perhaps we give the Millennials too much credit for assuming they know that, but perhaps not; it’s an easily Google-able prediction.
Millennials in massive numbers are reaching a tipping point; soon, they will able to safely afford a property purchase. Moreover, many of them actually want to do so, but are bewildered by where to start and terrified of where they might find themselves in the end.
It’s time to change the conversation for selling houses to Millennials. For them, a house is not an investment. It is a home. It is security, comfort, a place to finally call their own after years of anonymous city apartments. It is a place to marry and raise a family. It is a place to set down roots – become a member of a local church, to volunteer, to meet neighbors, to connect to a community.
Lenders and real estate agents alike should be seeking to calm the nerves of all would-be buyers, regardless of age, but the Millennials require more reassurance. To do so is not to baby this “entitled, spoiled” generation; it is to reassure them that yes, it’s a scary world out there, but there is a place in it where they belong – and that, as professionals in the industry, it’s your job to help them find it, afford it and own it.
They must be convinced that “buying a house” and “being a homeowner” are not synonymous, and that they can realize their dreams without sacrificing their safety.
