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Millennials Are Willing To Do These 6 Things To Achieve Homeownership

February 26, 2024

4 min Read

Written by Cynthia Measom

Edited by Ashleigh Ray

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Clever, a real estate data company, recently published its Millennial Home Buyer Report: 2024 Edition, which found that millennials who are interested in buying a home are concerned they aren’t going to qualify for a mortgage. According to the report half of millennials said high interest rates are a barrier to homeownership, and 67% regret not purchasing a home when rates were lower.

To afford a home in their price range, 42% of millennials expect to make concessions on the characteristics of a home, and 29% expect to make financial concessions. Here’s exactly what they plan on doing to help make their dream of homeownership a reality.

Accept a Higher Interest Rate

Although mortgage interest rates have receded lately, they are still about half a percentage point higher than they were a year ago, reported Forbes. Even so, millennials are willing to pay a higher interest rate to get a home.

According to the Clever report, 78% of prospective millennial homebuyers would consider accepting a mortgage loan with an interest rate that’s higher than the national rate of around 7%.

Additionally, the report found that 65% would accept an interest rate of 10% or more to be able to own a home, and 23% would accept a rate of 15% or more.

Buy a Cheaper Home

According to the report, the median U.S. home costs $431,000, but 57% of millennials have plans to purchase a home that’s cheaper — under $400,000.

Some millennials are willing to go even lower: 42% said they plan to buy a home under $300,000 and 27% said a home priced under $200,000 was a number they were comfortable with.

Buy a Home Sight Unseen

85% of millennials said they would buy a home sight unseen, even though one in eight millennial homeowners reported regretting purchasing a home without seeing it first.

Buying a home without touring it first is risky. Even so, some millennials said they would consider it if the following circumstances were present:

The home has a great price point: 38%
The home is new construction: 34%
Someone they trust looks at the home for them: 34%
There’s competition from other homebuyers: 27%
The seller is offering concessions: 24%
Fear of interest rates rising further: 21%

Buy A Fixer-Upper

Even though 35% of millennials report they’re not confident about undertaking major repairs, over two-thirds said they would be willing to purchase a fixer-upper. Unfortunately, 18% of millennial homeowners report regretting buying a fixer-upper.

In fact, some millennials are so driven to own a home, they would consider buying a home with the following issues:

Smells like cigarette smoke: 74%
No central air conditioning or heating: 68%
Has asbestos: 67%
Has mold: 62%
Has termites: 62%
Has a leaky roof: 60%
Has foundation issues: 58%

Take Drastic Measures

Two-thirds of millennials regret not purchasing a home when prices were lower, according to the report. To become a homeowner at this point, however, many said they would resort to drastic measures, including the following:

Getting an extra job: 32%
Moving to a more affordable rural area: 21%
Renting out a room in their home to help with the mortgage: 17%
Skipping some of their debt payments: 16%
Starting a GoFundMe: 15%
Moving to a less safe or developing neighborhood: 14%
Delaying having children: 13%
Delaying their wedding: 10%

Wait Until They’ve Saved a 20% Down Payment

Saving for a substantial down payment can take time, especially if you don’t have a good head start.

According to the report, 25% of millennials have less than $10,000 in savings, and 12% have less than $1,000 saved — including 5% who have nothing in savings.

Here are ways millennials plan to save up for a large down payment.