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Page 25 FEBRUARY 2016 • VOLUME 20 • ISSUE 9
Tapping into Millennial generation homebuyers By Riki Markowitz
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he least surprising thing you will hear today is that one of the hardest parts of being a real estate agent is finding clients. To help ease the burden, professional organizations like the National Association of REALTORS release annual trend reports – a trove of data that quantifies everything from consumer age to income levels, and buying habits. While this information is invaluable for its rich statistical content, it can still be a twodimensional snapshot of the real estate market. On January 13, Austin Board of REALTORS (ABoR) and the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Greater Austin hosted the 2016 Housing Forecast. The event featured in-
dustry analysts sharing insights on trends from this past year. Speaker Malee Tobias, vice president of research at Newland Real Estate Group with 15 years experience in consumer research, presented the report, “Designing for Today’s Consumer.” We asked Tobias to talk more about the buyer persona, which is an extraordinarily detailed description of today’s real estate customer.
Upcoming Events Wednesday, February 17 HBA Sales & Marketing Council Million Dollar Club Networking Happy Hour The Roosevelt Room - 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 17 CRS Austin Chapter Meeting Westwood Country Club 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Home buying trends One reason why Tobias’ research is especially fascinating is because Millennials – those kids under the age of 35 – are now fully part of the real estate market. These young people, born between 1980 and 1995, are shaking up the industry in a way we haven’t seen since innovations like planned communities and HOAs. Suddenly, there is a different type of shopper out there. “What was creating value for today’s buyers forced us to do our homework and dig in to what mattered with customers,” says Tobias. “We are seeing some huge demographic shifts happening right now.” Some commonalities revealed in the report are that with access to more information online, consumers of all ages are smarter and more financially conservative. When you look closer at the different generations, however, that’s where many similarities end.
Actual home buyers To find out how well Austin buyers are represented by the Newland report, Realty Line interviewed a random sampling of Austin homeowners, including Millennials, Gen X-ers, and Boomers. Some buyer behaviors they shared were startlingly on point. In her presentation, Tobias explained that today’s real estate customers have a whole new set of skills. In once sense, she’s referring to how the Great Recession has made careful, calculated, penny pinchers of us all. But that only tells part of the story. A lot of what she
talked about was a nod to the chasm between Millennials, Gen X-ers, and Boomers. Every new generation eventually hits adulthood and starts “adulting,” or getting married, starting a family, and buying a home. Up until now, there was a pretty predictable path between moving out of mom and dad’s house and into a couple’s first marital home. Tracking Millennials’ path, though, is more like a graphing an earthquake’s seismic activity. “These young people are going into adulthood much later than previous generations and they’re doing it their own way,” says Tobias. “They’re much more non-linear, and have a more flexible life path. Millennials are making a huge impact on buyer demographics.” Millennials grew up on the Internet and as a result, they’re walking into agents’ offices armed with more information than their predecessors ever had access to. “That was a game changer,” says John Horton, past president for ABoR. When the first Millennials started trickling into the marketplace, agents and brokers feared that sites like Zillow and Redfin could make them unnecessary and redundant. “They already knew about the property. They already knew what properties they wanted to see. At first, it was disconcerting because it felt like we were losing control. With a buyer that much more knowledgeable
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Wednesday, February 17 AYREP Happy Hour Blackfinn Ameripub - 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 18 Brohn Homes: REALTOR Breakfast Edgewater - 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, February 25 ABoR 5th Annual Chili Cook-Off ABoR Headquarters - 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 4 WCAoR Murder Mystery Dinner Austin Marriott North - 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8 Parade of Homes Stud Party Caliterra - 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, February 17 HBA Million $ Club Awards Happy Hour The Roosevelt Room- 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 17 CRS Luncheon - Westwood Country Club 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. More at www.myRealtyLine.com