Millennial Buyers Are Flooding the Housing Market

In 2020, millennials accounted for more than half of all home-purchase loan applications after surpassing baby boomers to become the largest living adult generation in the US. According to Realtor.com, millennials were responsible for 67% of first-time home purchase mortgage applications and 37% of repeat-purchase applications in the first eight months of 2021.

The largest cohort of millennials turned 30 this year, inching ever closer to the peak home buying age of 33. As more opt to get married and have children later in life than past generations, a bigger share of millennials will likely enter the housing market in the years to come.

The financial stakes could scarcely be higher for millennials, who have faced a wide wealth gap with previous generations. Burdened by student debt and with career paths sidelined by the 2008 financial crisis and housing-market collapse, many millennials lacked the savings for a down payment in their 20s. Some distrusted homeownership as an investment. Credit standards tightened after the housing crash, making it more difficult for many young borrowers to qualify for loans.

Some real-estate brokers also theorized that millennials preferred to rent and spend money on travel and experiences rather than buy houses. “We talked for years about how millennials preferred to ‘do’ rather than to ‘have,’ ” said Richard Ruvin, a Realtor at Keller Williams Milwaukee North Shore in Wisconsin.

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