Nearly a Quarter of Millennials Say Homeownership Out of Reach Due to Pandemic

Millennials have continued to lead housing recovery during the pandemic, yet nearly a quarter of the generation says the pandemic has decreased their likelihood of becoming homeowners. Another 23% said the pandemic actually increased their chances of homeownership, according to the Bank of America Research Millennial home improvement survey. The onset of the pandemic caused mortgage rates to dip to historic lows, allowing for some Millennials to jump into homeownership while some face the highly competitive market and shrinking inventory, says Business Insider. 

But the increased demand exacerbated a shrinking housing inventory. There are 40% fewer homes on the market than last year, Black Knight found a month ago. Freddie Mac estimated the US was short 3.8 million homes while a recent bank note from Jefferies put that shortage at 2.5 million homes. The same note also pointed to the underbuilding of homes dating back to the Great Recession.

"We've been underbuilding for years," Gay Cororaton, the director of housing and commercial research for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), previously told Insider. She said the US had been about 6.5 million homes short since 2000 and was facing a two-month supply of homes when it should have had about six months.

There have been 20 times fewer homes built in the past decade than in any decade as far back as the 1960s, Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, also told Insider. She said there aren't enough homes for millennials to buy.

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