The housing market is screwing over millennials – unless builders get their act together.
A recent Jefferies note on housing highlighted that homeownership rates have increased among those ages 25 to 29, and especially accelerated for those ages 30 to 34, a clear indication that the millennial generation truly reached homebuying age during the pandemic. The 25- to 34-year-old population is 9% larger than 35- to 44-year-olds, so millennials are set to drive the sector for a long time to come.
Indeed, millennials led all generations in homebuying last year, according to Apartment List’s Homeownership report, accelerating a five-year trend in millennial homeownership rates rising the fastest. The millennial homeownership rate has climbed to 47.9% from 40% just three years ago, according to the report. And 30% of millennials said in a recent survey by Clever Real Estate that the pandemic pushed them to house-hunting earlier than planned.
But there’s a big problem: Millennials’ push into homeownership has left America running out of homes.