Last week, Unison and OnePoll conducted a survey to find how baby boomers and millennials feel about home ownership. A lot of the answers from the survey are amusing but really didn’t tell us too much. For example, half of all millennials would swear off Instagram to own their dream home. One-in-four would spend a week in jail.
What’s interesting about that statistic is that half of all the millennials would rather have Instagram than a dream home. While it seems kind of strange, it doesn’t really tell us too much. No one really cares that one-in-four millennials would attend the Fyre Festival to obtain their dream home.
The real statistics are hiding in plain sight. What do millennials and baby boomers really think about home ownership today? Have their opinions changed in the last decade? This survey sought out those answers as well. 500 millennials and 500 baby boomers were asked about this crucial topic and here is what they found.
No Optimism for Home Ownership
If there’s one underlying theme from the survey, the vast majority of millennials want to buy a home. It’s the American dream! Graduate college, find a decent job, start your family, and buy a home. But, more than ever, the youngest generations are finding that it’s too difficult to accomplish.
Two-in-five millennials say home ownership is 100% out of the question for them. It’s not that they don’t want to buy a house. No, the reality is, they don’t ever believe they can afford it. Perhaps they are bogged down by student loan debt or don’t expect decent money to come. Either way, they can’t see themselves making that step at all.
30% of millennials say they have a better chance at wooing an A-list celebrity than becoming a homeowner. 42% simply say home ownership is just too expensive. 27% say they will only own a home if they inherit it. Baby boomers think differently. Only 9% find it’s too expensive for them. There’s a lot of different factors that go into buying a home they just can’t afford.
The Difficulty of Home Ownership
According to the millennials surveyed, the housing market is changing. It’s shifting to a new paradigm that will make buying a home incredibly difficult for them. Realistically, many of them won’t be able to buy a home and they know it. 47% of all millennials believe that home ownership is much more difficult today than even 30 years ago.
Millennials have baby boomers in their corner on this one. 51% of baby boomers agree, saying that buying a home today is certainly more difficult to do. A lot of it has to do with needing to have a massive down payment and high-interest rates. If it’s one thing millennials don’t have, it’s extra cash laying around. Some companies, like Unison, look to fill in the gaps.
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Thomas Sponholtz, the CEO of Unison, had this to say:
“Millennials are very cynical, more so than their boomer counterparts, when it comes to home buying and are concerned about piling on additional debt. They want flexibility and control of their lives and their finances. When they partner with Unison, who will contribute up to 15% of the down payment, millennials have the ability to buy a home, while still having cash on hand to live the life they want.”
Putting Off Life Goals
One-in-three millennials claim they have altered a life plan or goal simply because they couldn’t afford it. The facts bear this out, as we’ve written several articles on this. This age group is putting off marriage, having kids, and buying a home. They don’t have the extra cash needed to accomplish their goals.
Here are some statistics:
• 1-in-3 put off home ownership because they couldn’t afford the down payment.
• 22% have put off getting married
• 49% say they can’t find suitable work
• 24% have put off having kids
“With student debt and rising home prices, millennials have it harder than their baby boomer counterparts did at the same age,” continued Sponholtz. “Owning a home is a fundamental human desire and they might be willing to give up their iPhone, brunch, and marriage to own a home.”
