Millenials—amirite?

Forget Tradition

“The millennials have turned my parents' lives upside down!” said my wife.

She was referring to her parents’ recent housing situation in Bend, Oregon. Her parents are selling their house in the elite area of the hills above Bend. They have reached a certain age and stage in their lives, and they need a smaller house close to downtown, within walking distance of shopping, services, entertainment, and the like.

The problem is millennials favor those smaller houses, close to downtown, within walking distance of shopping, services, entertainment, and the like. Millennials aged 33 to 34 are said to be the biggest wave of buyers since the baby boomers.

Therefore, any smaller house my wife’s parents want to buy near downtown is just as expensive as their elite home in the hills, which has expansive views of the mountains and countryside around Bend, and traditionally, is way more expensive than the smaller downtown homes.

Forget the traditional pricing. During my wife’s parents’ ownership over the last 15 years, tradition has gone out the window, and the new market of millennial preferences has moved in.

“When my parents sell their home,” said my wife, “they will have to pay nearly the same amount for a much smaller home on a tiny lot in the downtown area where they want to buy!”

When my wife’s parents bought their house up in the hills, everything in their neighborhood was new, all built within a couple years of each other, with exteriors of heavy wood post-and-beam front porches and rafters, and interiors of exposed-beam high ceilings and hardwood floors.

Downtown homes were cool, but they were much older and smaller. No way my wife’s parents would have been interested in living downtown at the time.

But now, here comes the new wave of millennials with their taste for the close-in neighborhoods. Not only do the smaller houses around downtown cost just as much as the bigger houses in the hills, but there is also absolutely nothing for sale there.

My wife’s declaration that her parents are “upside down” because of millennials may be a little dramatic, but the lesson in analyzing real estate markets, including our market here in the North Valley, may be: Whither goest the millennials, there goest the market.

Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 in Chico. Email dougwlove@gmail.com. Call or text 530-680-0817.

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