Millennials are the country’s Golden Children right now. Advertisers are targeting them and specifically tailoring their products to them, their viewership for television shows is listed as the ‘key demographic,’ and companies looking for a youth infusion are gobbling up Millennials like white marbles on a Hungry Hungry Hippos board.
When it comes to the housing industry, the importance of Millennials is increasing further as more and more of them begin to enter the domain of homeownership. And with all this attention to Millennials, it can be easy to overlook other generations, but that would be a mistake.
For example, Generation X is also of great importance as a homebuyer group. Not only do they comprise 26 percent of recent buyers, but they are also in their peak income-earning years and have the highest median priced and the largest homes in median square footage home of all other buyers, according to The Economists’ Outlook blog.
The latest Housing Opportunities and Market Experience Survey shows that 90 percent of Gen Xers are also more certain than Millennials that buying a home is a good financial decision. More Generation X respondents own than rent, at 66 to 30 percent. but like their younger Millennial counterparts, those who aren’t buying said their main reason for not doing so is because of the inability to afford a home. 88 percent of Gen Xers who do not currently own a home would like to in the future, but in order for this to happen an improvement in their financial situation or a major lifestyle change were tied at 29 percent as the two things that would need to happen most to change current renters into buyers.
From a regional standpoint, Generation X is pretty optimistic about homebuying across the country as 86 percent of Gen X respondents in the Northeast, 93 percent in the Midwest, 90 percent in the South, and 92 percent in the West believe buying a home is a good financial decision. Additionally, 91 Gen Xers in the South are most likely to believe owning a home is a part of the American dream and those in the Northeast are least likely at 79 percent.
