MILLENNIALS

From Page 3 ey shifted to remote roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing them up to move to Grand Rapids, where Claire is originally from and where Daniel also lived before moving to Ann Arbor. e Mollings are part of a wave of millennials in the past few years who have moved to Grand Rapids. As of 2021, two-thirds of the West Michigan city’s population was under 45 years old, and the median age was 31. ey started their search while still living in Ann Arbor during one of the hottest periods for the Grand Rapids residential market — late 2020. At the time, the Federal Reserve was keeping interest rates arti cially low, between 2% and 3%, as part of its eco-

Daniel Molling said their road to homeownership was “really di cult.” ey met and lived in Ann Arbor the rst several years of their relationship, where home prices were nearly double those of Grand Rapids.

He is a data scientist for San Francisco-based medication management platform Arine, and Claire is academic director for the Michigan Language Center, a private English language school based in Ann Arbor that serves international students and business executives.

Claire Molling said one of the factors in their homeownership journey was getting to a point where their relationship was stable enough that they felt comfortable sharing real estate. And Daniel Molling’s career played a big role.

“For me, getting either a job in Grand Rapids or a job that was completely remote like my current job ... I think it would have been hard for us to commit to buying a house if we didn’t know we had that,” he said.

As part of the consent order reached with the state, Stellantis is required to begin operating the thermal oxidizer by June 30, even if the permit to install has not been approved by then.

Burton’s 1-year-old grandson Zamir, who regularly stays at her house on Beniteau Street, was diagnosed with reactive airway disease earlier this year, according to a copy of his medical report. It listed air pollution and “strong odors or fumes, such as from exhaust, paint, or chemicals” as contributing factors. His doctor recommended a nebulizer to help with the wheezing, Burton said.

“It do concern me because basically you not worried about our health and what we’re breathing in,” Burton said of the potential emissions increase. “It’s like our lives don’t matter, that’s how I feel. It’s like you don’t care how we live.”

In the permit to install at Mack Assembly, Stellantis is asking to more than double its output limit of PM10 (inhalable particles) to 12.24 tons per nomic stimulus policy during the pandemic. ey toured dozens of houses and put in more than 10 o ers in an eightmonth period before buying their place — a 1,547-square-foot, two-story house with a nice backyard built in 1924 that’s just a few blocks south of the busy Leonard Street business district. e Mollings — who are about to become parents — said they were lucky to nd their house when they did. Friends of theirs who are looking now, when inventory is even lower, have not been as fortunate.

“It was a really tough time, because … everyone was looking for a house,” Daniel Molling said.

“When we were looking, they didn’t always tell us how many other o ers there were, but I know a couple of times, they told us it was in the 20s — like, 20 other o ers,” Daniel Molling said.

Molling, whose bachelor’s degree is in economics and mathematics, said he’s acutely aware of the reasons millennials lag previous generations when it comes to homeownership. Housing prices, health care costs and the sticker price of a college degree have all increased at a faster rate than wages since the Great Recession.

“Millennials are coming out of college with a lot more debt from college or graduate school than previous generations,” he said. “So it’s very di cult to tack on more debt … to get a mortgage,” he said.

Culturally speaking, millennials are also less willing to stay in one job their entire careers. is can make career advancement and wage growth challenging.

Daniel Molling said if he could o er one piece of advice to younger house hunters, it would be to try an unconventional purchase, like a condo. ey are less competitive to buy and can year and nearly double the limit of the more hazardous PM2.5 ( ne inhalable particles) to 9.45 tons per year. e emission changes at the Warren plant are “expected to be minimal,” with just a minor increase in particulate matter, according to the permit. However, the conversion of its 4-wet coating system in the paint shop will result in VOC emissions totaling 124.5 tons per year — an increase of 40 tons per year, which amounts to a “major modi cation.”

“Before a permit is issued, the company must demonstrate the nal proposal meets all applicable rules and regulations,” EGLE spokeswoman Jill Greenberg said in an email. “In addition, not all initial proposals in an application end up in the modi ed permit.” work just as well for singles or childless couples who don’t need four bedrooms and a yard.

Once the technical review of applications is complete, EGLE will begin a 45-day public comment period. Greenberg said it is di cult to estimate when the review will be completed.

He also said now that interest rates are higher, competition is less intense, which means buyers can get away with using federal down payment assistance programs instead of the standard 20% cash down — or even all-cash o ers.

View from metro Detroit

While Grand Rapids stood at the top of the list for highest concentration of millennial homeowners, Detroit was just a few spots down the list, with about 55% of those in the generation owning their residence.

For David Johnson, becoming a homeowner has been a largely positive experience, albeit with some learning curves along the way.

Johnson, a 31-year-old public defender in St. Clair County, moved into his condo in Detroit’s red-hot Corktown neighborhood in October 2021. Having rented a small one-bedroom apartment in the city’s central business district during the early days of the pandemic, moving to a larger, new-construction home was appealing.

All told, Johnson said he’s loved the experience, but has also had to work to get up to speed on some of what goes into being a homeowner.

“ ere’s maintenance and there’s property taxes,” Johnson told Crain’s. “You’re on your own and learning as you go.”

While Johnson has no regrets about purchasing the condo, which he said totaled about $540,000 after some customizations to the unit, he

“When a facility requests emission limit increases through a permit application based on stack test results being above initial estimates, it must provide a detailed justi cation identifying what steps they have taken to meet the current emission limits (i.e., process/operational changes),” according to the department. “If the facility has evaluated what options are available to them and still cannot meet the current emission limits, then emission limit increases may be considered.”

EPA complaint

e state’s review of the applications comes as it is being investigated by the EPA for alleged “environmental discrimination” for the permitting of Mack Assembly, which launched production in March 2021.

e complaint, made by the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in late 2021, said EGLE imposed “discriminatory harms” by allowing Stel- said he does feel somewhat more tied down as a homeowner as opposed to a renter with more exibility. e condo, he said, included a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax abatement, meaning that for taxes to remain low, he must continue living in the unit as opposed to being able to rent it out.

Age a de ning factor

Paul Carlson, 39, is president of Grand Rapids-based Five Star Real Estate, the top independent residential real estate brokerage in Grand Rapids and third-largest in the state of Michigan, with 21 o ces statewide.

His company did about $2.4 billion in sales across about 4,900 home sales last year. About 2,150 of those ($1.2 billion in sales) were in greater Grand Rapids.

He said the situation for millennial homebuyers depends on their age. He’s been working in real estate since 2006, before the bottom dropped out of the housing market and home values plummeted during the Great Recession.

e local market fully recovered by 2012 and has been in “hot” territory ever since, he said. A normal housing market has about ve to six months of inventory at any given time, but Grand Rapids has seen just 3.5 months of supply or less every year since 2013.

At the end of 2022, there was less than a month of inventory in greater Grand Rapids.

In 2007, the average home value for Grand Rapids was $107,500. By 2011, it was $119,000, and in 2012, it was $132,000. Today, the average home price in greater Grand Rapids is $338,000.

at’s all from a 2022 report by the Greater Regional Alliance of Realtors in Grand Rapids.

“On average, if you bought ve lantis to o set an increase of air pollution at the Mack plant by reducing emissions at its Warren Truck plant.

According to the complaint, that resulted in “signi cant enlargement of air emissions in a low income community where nearly all residents within one mile are people of color already inundated by other industrial sources.”

Detroit’s east side had the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the city even before Mack Assembly and its nearby suppliers opened, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Asthma hospitalization rates are at least four times greater in Detroit than Michigan as a whole, according to the most recent MDHHS data collected 2016-19. e EPA has “been investigating and working toward resolution of a Title VI complaint of discrimination,” EPA spokeswoman Macy Pressley said in an email.

“Due to the con dential nature of these discussions, EPA cannot comment on anything which relates to that case,” Pressley said.

EPA o cials visited residents living near the plant in late February. Burton is hoping for a positive outcome but plotting an exit strategy if the situation does not improve.

“Kids are small, and they need to be able to run around and play, and you can’t let them do it too long ’cause you don’t know if they gonna get sick or not,” she said. “I’d rather just sell my home or be somewhere else, where I could be in a neighborhood that my grandkids can enjoy and I can enjoy them.”

Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl years ago, you’ve experienced a 94% increase in equity, or about $168,000 in cash,” he said.

“ e millennial story, it’s shifting right now, drastically. If you did not buy a home as a millennial (until now), you kind of missed the train. Because now, we’re looking at 7% interest rates, we’re looking at an incredibly high pricing … and we are seeing less and less inventory. Even though you’re seeing incredibly unfavorable lending conditions compared to the past 10 years, you’re not seeing relief in terms of supply.”

Most millennials who aren’t homeowners say they can’t a ord to buy right now, either because they don’t have the down payment or because they can’t a ord the monthly mortgage costs. About 67% of those who want to own a home at some point in their lives have no money saved for a down payment and 18% have less than $10,000, according to Apartment List. About 42% say one of their biggest obstacles to homeownership is bad credit, up from 39% in 2018.

One of Five Star’s biggest concerns about the market going forward, especially as Gen Z comes of age, is the adage of the “golden handcu s” that lock both the homeowner and prospective buyer in stasis, Carlson said.

“Who is going to move if you got a 2.99% interest rate?” he said. “Let’s say you sell your house for $300,000, and you want to buy the home across the street for $300,000. If you get rid of your current mortgage, and you buy that house with a new mortgage, that house will cost you $1,000 more per month just in interest.”

— Bloomberg contributed to this report.

Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes

Contact: rachel.watson@crain.com

(989) 533-9685; @RachelWatson86

“We’re doing the innovation, entrepreneurship and investment piece of the Michigan Central project,” he said. “We’re kind of the rst proof point for the larger project.”

Belt, who has overseen build-out of the Newlab building for the past two years, hopes to duplicate a successful model at the company’s New York base. e idea is to build a consortium of early-stage startups with a space for proving out technology, showcasing it and attracting investment for it.

It has elements of a tech incubator, co-working space and R&D facility, but bringing it all under one roof is what makes it unique, said Josh Sirefman, CEO of the Michigan Central Innovation District.

“ e membership concept is something we applied to the entirety of Michigan Central, the underlying theory being if you want to be a part of Michigan Central, we want you here for a day, a month, a year or whatever it is,” Sirefman said.

What it o ers

e building is designed with open working spaces, event areas, o ces and lab space. e Michigan Economic Development Corp., along with several other state agencies, are expected to be tenants, though leases have not yet been signed, Sirefman said.

ere is a 3D printing shop, a wood and metal shop and a robotics room, including a CNC milling machine from Ford’s closed Romeo Engine Plant. Startups can also use their spaces to display products, creating a showroom oor for executives of automotive companies looking to see the latest tech.

Originally opened as a post o ce, its proximity to the train depot allowed the two buildings to be connected via an underground tunnel, allowing for convenient mail transport. at will come in handy for Newlab because vehicles can be rolled in through the bottom level of the building to be put up for display or tinkered on with software and hardware startups.

“It’s really a hybrid of these studios where we interact with government and corporations, product realization and also physical space,” Belt said.

e membership cost in Detroit is $350 a month per person, and $1-$3 per square foot of space, depending on the needs and stage of a company.

e state plans to subsidize the cost for some members, but details are