What Do Millennials Want? We Now Have a Better Idea

By Realty Times Published Nov 13, 2019 01:30 pm

What do millennials want? It’s a question that has been asked quite a bit, especially as it relates to real estate. Home insurance resource Clovered has provided a more detailed look at the wants of this buyer, which can be useful for home sellers who want a few key staging tips for this market, not to mention home builders looking to attract a millennial target.

“Millennials tend to have higher expectations than older homeowners did about their ideal starter home, according to a new survey by Clovered,” said REALTOR Magazine.

If you look at the buying trends of millennials, it’s clear that while they may be waiting longer to purchase their first home, their expectations of what that house should include certainly aren’t lagging. “Compared to their parents and grandparents at their age, fewer millennials are homeowners, but millions of younger people have invested in their own property—and they might not be the starter houses you’d expect,” said Clovered. “Despite living with their parents longer than any generation before them, putting off marriage for an increased time span, and sometimes struggling to find their dream jobs, millennials are going from perennial renters to owners of what might be their forever homes.”

The company surveyed more than 1,000 millennial first-time buyers for insight into which features and amenities were highest on their list. Here are a few of the key points:

Home size

Does size matter? It does in pretty much every demographic, but millennials are the most sensitive when it comes to the amount of square footage they want in their home. Baby boomers’ ideal size home, according to the survey, is 2,949 square feet, Generation X prefers homes at 3,311 square feet, and millennials want the most space at 3,320 square feet.

Number of bedrooms

Millennials prefer 4.2 bedrooms, per the study, to boomers’ 3.7 and Gen X’s 4.1. While you’re probably not looking to add a fourth bedroom just for the purpose of selling your home, this information may help you stage it intelligently. Clearing out that bedroom you’ve been using as a home gym or storage space and turning it back into a bedroom might be a good idea.

Move-in ready

The top factors noted by survey participants had several things sellers can’t do much about in terms of making their home more saleable—things like the affordability of the area, local crime rates, short commute to work, and climate. Sellers can, however, do something about making their home move-in ready—another important factor for millennials.

“It’s hard to deny the emotional aspect of buying a home,” Clovered said. “When you’re touring potential listings and trying to decide where you want to raise your family or put down roots, you’re fantasizing about what life in that home could be like. Instead of thinking about where the house is located or how much you’ll have to pay in property taxes, it’s the tangible features of a home that really help sell it for most people.”