The average age of a first-time home buyer is 26, three years younger than for Gen X or baby-boomer buyers. So what's up with that?
Featured Gallery
Advertisement
Sure, favorable rates and terms make buying a house easier for young people these days, but the trend may be most affected by the characteristics of this generation:
They are tech-savvy. Generation Y can't remember life without a computer.
This means they are consumers who research everything, including buying houses.
They are confident. Parents told them they were special, challenging their children's teachers on poor grades and negotiating with their coaches for more playing time.
Stores like Baby Gap, channels like Nickelodeon and numerous magazines and catalogs have catered to them their whole lives.
So Gen Y'ers don't doubt themselves or their decisions, including buying a house.
They don't believe in paying their dues at work. They want respect at the office now and if they don't get it, they'll move on. Similarly, they don't wait to buy homes.
To find out more about their housing preferences, we spoke to three Gen Y'ers. Each is a housing expert. None has yet turned 30.
•Generation Y'ers grew up with soccer games, tennis practice, swimming lessons, French class. They've carried that overscheduling tendency into adulthood. How has that affected the type of home they want?•Carrie Vanderford: "Growing up, I did dance lessons, cake decorating, French horn, drama, soccer, softball, T-ball, gymnastics, piano. I'm still busy like that, so I'm not a homebody. That said, I want a place that's simple and free of clutter and that has a connectedness through technology.”
•Stephen Colin: "Because of my busy schedule, I'm not willing to do a long commute. I want to be close to work, close to friends and close to local services.”
•Ryan Townsend: "My generation is looking for low-maintenance homes that are easier to care for. More brick, steel and glass, but also more condo living and less emphasis on land.
"In the next 20 years a big backyard is going to move from asset to liability. Mention ‘acreage' and a 50-something hears ‘peaceful place away from the pressures of the city,' while a 20-something hears ‘isolated maintenance nightmare.'”
•Gen Y'ers seem to be more into the environment than previous generations. Does being green affect your home?•Townsend: "Green design is a trend the way indoor plumbing is a trend. Seriously, today's 20-somethings are more globally aware and civic-minded than tuned-out and cynical Generation X.
"Developers and architects will be forced into environmental awareness purely by market demand.
"The buzz topics that will spill from architects' discussions to homeowners' discussions will be SIPs (structural insulated panels that go up faster, use less wood and are more energy-efficient than traditional frame building) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a certification program through the U.S. Green Building Council).
"Other topics include rehabilitation of older buildings instead of new construction, an end to the use of vinyl products, geothermal heat, tankless water heaters, solar power, sun angles, embodied energy, reclaimed timber and xeriscaping.”
•Vanderford: "Being green is just a way of life. I'm LEED accredited. It's so important that I wouldn't date someone who didn't recycle. Eco snobbery has become a status symbol for Generation Y.”
Colin: "Sustainable housing and furniture are important to me. It also affects where I live. I'd like to take public transit or, ideally, walk to work.”
•Many Gen Y'ers grew up in McMansions. Is your parents' big house your dream house?•Colin: "No. I want a smaller space so it's easier to take off and go. A house that's low-maintenance is good.
"Generation Y traveled a lot in college and will continue to do so through life. So a big yard isn't a plus, either.”
•Townsend: "No. I think that seeing so many of our generation's parents divorce makes us understand that family togetherness is important.
"So as we start having kids you will see us avoid homes with a living room, family room and finished basement rec room in favor of open-plan homes where the family can share space.”
•Vanderford: "Definitely not. The huge space thing as a status ... my life changes. Movable wall systems are used in offices, and they'd be good in more homes.”
•Townsend: "Technology means more modernism. My architectural psychology class taught me that people who feel overwhelmed by change ... usually choose traditional style.
"They see the past as being better than the future, and they create whatever link to the past they can.
"Generation Y is just the opposite. We want more and more change. My 60-something aunt wants to live in a Monticello-esque house because she makes a link to the noble founding of our country.
"My generation learned about Jefferson as the guy who had a bunch of illegitimate children with his slaves. We don't want to live in his house.”
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Fourth of July Page
Share your July 4th photos with NewsOK and view other stories and videos.
Multimedia
More Info
Carrie Vanderford, 27, an economic development project analyst for the city of Kansas City, Mo., displays her dream home, a prefabricated modular home made of green materials. The 20-something generation has definite views on where to live and how to live. McClatchy-Tribune
Who is Generation Y?
Those born between 1978 and 1994. They're also called Millennials, the Internet Generation, Echo Boomers, Nexters and the Digital Generation. Generation Y follows Generation X, a term coined by fiction writer Douglas Coupland to describe those born after boomers, roughly 1965 to 1978.
On the horizon?
Demountable wall panels might be a future feature in Gen-Y homes. The panels, which allow walls to be broken down and moved, work like office cubicles with metal-grid foundations. They allow you to easily change wall material (fabric, glass, etc.) and rewire as technology evolves.
The residential system by DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time) of Calgary, Alberta, shown at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in Chicago, can be purchased through architects and interior designers. One panel, used in a kitchen, allows users to easily rearrange modular cabinetry.
0
Featured Gallery
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).