Metro or Suburb: Where Millennials are Buying Homes

In a SmartAsset study published this May, there are interesting findings that give insight on recent millennial buying trends and their choice of location when making a real estate investment. As part of our accolades blog post series, we bring you the latest praise from a reputable scientific study conducted to enlighten young buyers where it's best to buy a home (HINT: Texas is in the list. Why should we even be surprised?).

Premise 1: The study noted that homeownership rate among young people has been steadily declining in the past few years, with home owners aged 35 and below at 43% in 2005, but with today's rate of the same group at only 35%.

Premise 2: Many factors may have affected the shift, such as the rising housing cost in cities, but data suggests that homeownership among young adults is not declining at all. In 21 of the largest 200 cities in the U.S., homeownership rate among adults under 35 have increased over the past decade.

Premise 3: The housing crisis in the past decade drove many potential buyers away from the market, but findings show that millennials in the cities are buying homes at greater rates than young adults did a decade ago. There MUST BE SOMEPLACE ELSE WHERE THEY ARE MAKING AN INVESTMENT.

KEY FINDINGS

First finding: Millennials are no longer buying in big cities. Because of the rising cost of housing in urban areas, the past decade has seen a decrease in homeownership rate among young adults in 24 of the largest cities in the U.S., with rates falling more than 10%.

Second finding: Millennials are budget conscious. Eight of the ten cities where homeownership rate among young adults showed an increase in the past decade had median home values that were lower than the national median.

Third finding: The states of Florida and Texas are the top choice of millennials for home ownership. These states have placed the most number of cities in the SmartAsset's study's list of top choice cities for millennial home ownership.

To access the complete details of SmartAsset's study, you may read Nick Wallace's article discussing its results here.