Get to Know Middle-Aged Millennial Buyers and Homeowners

Are Millennials really as young, unmarried, and financially irresponsible as much of the older generations portray them? CNBC’s answer is no. At the tail end of Millennial-ism are 40-year-old, student loan stricken homeowners. Fifty-nine percent of older Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1988, are homeowners and the majority have been for more than five years, according to a new CNBC survey conducted by The Harris Poll. When it came down to placing a down payment, 10% of older Millennials surveyed dipped into their retirement accounts, 20% used a credit card, and nearly one in five received assistance from their family.

“When it comes to achieving homeownership, older millennials were just scrappy and very resourceful,” says Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema.

Jang-Busby’s mother and mother-in-law chipped in to help cover the down payment following last-minute issues with their original lender.

“We had to be very resourceful,” he says. Ten days before the couple was set to close on their house, their original lender told them they could no longer do a 10% down payment as originally promised and needed to put down 20% of the roughly $450,000 home price. The couple switched lenders, but with the clock ticking, their parents stepped in to help make up the difference in what their savings would not cover. 

“If we had come out [of school] with good jobs, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” Jang-Busby says. He graduated from college in 2008, at the start of the Great Recession and had to take “odds-and-ends jobs” because he wasn’t able to find full-time, decent-paying work. 

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