Nearly 75% of Homebuyers and Sellers Are Millennial and Younger — What Trends Are Biggest Draws?
One of the key themes of the 2022 U.S. housing market is that a lot of people want to buy a new home and a lot want to sell, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do either because of record-high home prices, rising mortgage rates and increased competition.
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A new Realtor.com survey released on May 24 found that 72% of home sellers also plan to buy this year. That’s a challenge in the current environment. As Realtor.com noted, many home buyers are being priced out of the market, while sellers face rising competition from an influx of other sellers who weren’t in the market a year ago.
The survey of 3,212 adults, conducted in April by HarrisX, found that younger Americans are particularly active in the housing market. The largest demographic group of seller-buyers active in this year’s market are millennials (47%). Seller-buyers in the Gen Z cohort (25%) are the second largest group, followed by Gen X (15%) and baby boomers (12%).
“As seller-buyers, many stand to profit from record-high home prices, but are also challenged by the lack of affordable listings and rising cost pressures,” George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com, said in a press release.
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Another trend is that nearly half (45%) of 2022 seller-buyers plan to buy outside of their current towns, including 9% who anticipate moving to another state. The main reasons given were a lower cost of housing (25% of respondents), warmer climate (23%), greater access to outdoor activities (19%) and proximity to family and friends (19%). The majority of 2022 seller-buyers live in the South (37%) or West (33%).
Among the survey’s other key findings:
- Half of those in the market are eyeing prices of $500,000 or less on both the sell side (49%) and buy side (53%). The median new home price in April 2022 rose 19.6% from a year earlier to a record $450,600, Reuters reported, while the average price surged 31.2% to $570,300.
- Among the current market conditions most likely to impact plans, respondents most frequently cited inflation (39%) and rising home prices (36%).
- When asked about top concerns specific to selling and buying simultaneously, top responses were managing the financial logistics of both transactions (36%), managing the logistics of moving (32%), home prices (32%), the final price of the home they are selling (27%) and finding a home within budget (26%).
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