MILLENNIAL HOME BUYING TRENDS

The landscape of buying a home is something that is ever-changing. One age group that is steadily reshaping this landscape is millennials. Born between 1981 and around 1996, millennials make up 38% of homebuyers, according to a report done by the National Association of Realtors. After the financial crisis interrupted the plans of many, this generation is now taking the housing market by storm as they begin to settle down and have families. According to a Real Estate in a Digital Age report, 99% of millennials start their home search online and 58% found their current home on a mobile device. Many also opt to utilize a realtor to make the process run as smoothly as possible. We spoke to three recent millennial homebuyers who worked with India Hall, The Ultimate Realtor® .

Article By Lauryn Forbes

Domino.com polled first-time Millennial buyers to see which features they could live without if it means a better deal.

“Pass on the Personal Backyard or Balcony

It turns out that while mowing the lawn and waving to the neighbors looks nice in films, it’s something buyers are readily leaving behind to fully commit to investing in a place. More than half of those polled said they’d give up a private yard or outdoor space in order to buy within their budget. Another plus: Ditching the outdoors can help narrow your search.

You Don’t Need a New Build

In the survey, participants were asked a series of questions in two waves, once in April and again in October. Over those six months, people let go the idea of a shiny new house and embraced finding an older one with character—to the tune of a 12 percent increase in responses to the polls.

Consider Moving Farther Than Across Town

You’re about to buy a building! Go big or go home—literally. If you’re willing to shake up your entire life by taking on a mortgage, it might also be worth relocating to a new city. With remote working as the new standard, you don’t need to pay Manhattan rent when you can dial into a Zoom call from Philadelphia instead. Per the report, nearly half of participants agreed, with 41 percent listing transitioning to a more rural area or a new destination as a fair trade-off—a notion that then increased to 46 percent in the second wave of the survey. If there’s any kind of silver lining to the past year, it’s that new owners can catch a place they really want to buy rather than squeezing a small starter option for everything it’s got.”

LEAVING A LEGACY FOR HER FAMILY

As many millennials are, Kimberly Harvey was perfectly content with renting. The ease of exiting a lease is nowhere near as tedious as putting a house on the market. However, her biggest reason for buying a home is because she has a family. As a mother, she acknowledges the importance of creating opportunities for generational wealth. “I [thought], I should really have something that I can hand off to them”, Harvey said.

As for her home buying process, she knew exactly what kind of house she wanted and how much money she wanted to be approved for, but she didn’t really know what her credit should look like to get there. She understood this was the first place she had to start, and the place where she encourages potential homebuyers to focus on. She stressed the importance of getting one’s credit in order before attempting to move forward in the buying process. “I feel like if you don’t know where you are with your credit, then really you won’t even know where to begin with a realtor,” she said.

Addressing fellow homebuyers, she emphasized that, “whether you’re a millennial or not, older, younger, it doesn’t matter, you definitely should find a great realtor, it’s key”. Her realtor helped bridge the gap between her and the lender, making sure that she understood everything that was being communicated to her. She added that some qualities to look for in a good realtor are good communication skills, honesty, and being able to answer a lot of questions and break things down for their clients.

When it comes to her new home, she is most excited to decorate. She also can’t wait to go outside. As a self-proclaimed “outdoorsy” person, she loves to plant flowers and can’t wait to create a garden in her new yard.

A PLACE TO CALL THEIR OWN

Longtime Hyattsville residents and partners Yicela Alvarado and William Martinez decided this past October that they wanted to invest in a home. As many other millennials do, they transitioned from renting a place to signing a mortgage, closing on their new home in Riverdale, Maryland in January. Their reasoning was that they are only paying around $100 more for something that they are working to own.

With the purple line extending into the area and property values rising, Riverdale seemed like the perfect community to invest in property and to live in. “We’re really happy that we’re here is because we’re starting to see the change,” said Alvarado.

It all started with an idea and a Google, and through this Alvarado was connected with home mortgage companies and then to a trusted realtor.

Due to an extremely competitive market, they were not selected to secure the bid to the home they were dead set on. Although disappointed, they later ended up finding the home of their dreams.

Research, the help of friends, and their realtor really made their home buying process as smooth as possible, with the process only taking two months.

Being younger than many homebuyers gave Alvarado and Martinez the insight to use the internet as a major tool to get their information. “if we don’t know something we just Google it”, Alvarado said.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Alvarado and Martinez often used their space to entertain, and being able to do that again is one of the things they’re looking forward to most in their new house. However, they agree that they’re the most excited about decorating their new place and recreating the fun, positive environment that they often emulated.

The couple wanted to emphasize that while buying a home as a minority may seem like a daunting task, it is important to have a good support system as well as find people to work with that want you to get the home as well. “It’s possible for anyone to have a home,” Martinez said, “Just don’t give up and keep going with the process”.

FAMILY, FRIENDS & SUCCESS

Alvina Stokes was led to the idea of buying a home when she no longer felt the need to keep spending money on leases. “It got to a certain point where I was tired of leasing homes. Leasing got very expensive.” Stokes explained. “I just figured okay, well if you look into a mortgage, you’re benefitting from it because it’s yours”. She felt as if she was wasting her money continuing to rent from people when she could invest in something.

Stokes’ new home is a four-level, three-bedroom, twobathroom loft-style townhouse located in an Upper Marlboro community. She purchased her home with the amount of space she needed in mind, as she wanted a home she could entertain guests in, as well as accommodate her family.

From the stories she has heard about buying homes, she believes that her home buying process was smooth sailing and is extremely grateful for it. “The hardest part for me was actually picking my home,” she said. She also didn’t know within which county she wanted to reside, but had no major issues or hiccups in her home buying process.

Stokes is also an upcoming entrepreneur who plans to launch an online clothing store named “Divatude Collection” in Spring 2021. Her new home will accommodate this venture, as she plans to set aside her loft area to make an office and work storage space for her store.

She is most excited to add her personal touch to her home and to decorate it. Additionally, she can’t wait to entertain guests in her new home and simply show it off.

In addressing potential homebuyers, she wants to share the following tips: “Save early, decide what you can afford, strengthen your credit, have patience, and select India Hall the Ultimate Realtor® as your agent”.

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