First Home, Forever Home

Homeowners have been moving less over the past 18 years, causing first-time homebuyers to wonder more and more if their starter home will be their forever home.

More Millennials are entering the housing market as first-time homebuyers, but have greater levels of student loan debt than previous generations of first-time buyers, and as such are buying later, and are likely to stay in their home longer. Market conditions including rising interest rates, other homeowners staying home longer, and appreciating [albeit slower] home prices are all headwinds to homebuyers' purchasing power, The New York Times reports. 

“We are restless people, we like to feel like we could move at any time. If you think of your house as your starter home, you know you can just leave,” said Melody Warnick, the author of “This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are.” “That’s a belief that we cherish because it gives us a sense of freedom.”

Americans have been moving less over the years, with only 11 percent changing households in 2017, down from 13 percent in 2007, according to United States census data. Historically, we stayed in our homes for around six years; now we’re now staying for 10, according the National Association of Realtors. The mood is affecting how we live in our homes and where we spend our money. More than three quarters of the respondents to an October Zillow survey, for example, reported that, given the option, they’d rather spend a lump sum of money renovating their current home than on a down payment for a new one.

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