Millennials like to flip long standing trends right on their head, so businesses must keep a watchful eye on them. The housing industry is no exception and research conducted to further understand this demographic has revealed that millennials might actually turn out to be good for the housing market. Research was examined by the The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) who found that millennials with Bachelor’s degrees tend to “re-launch” after moving back in with their parents.
This re-launch will be the sweet spot for the housing industry. Re-launching is when millennials who have not lived at home for some time, move back in with their parents to gain their bearings, then leave again. NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe weighs in on the analysis, “The data may indicate that while this age group is delaying what we think of as typical milestones, the combination of resources and education and what we have found about their preferences suggest growing housing demand in the years ahead.”
Half of millennials move home, then they re-launch
A quick breakdown of the study shows that 90 percent of millennials born between 1980 and 1984 moved out of their parents’ home before turning 27. Of that 90 percent, those that earned a Bachelor’s degree or higher were 55.5 percent more likely to be moving back in with mom and dad. Of that group, 45.7 percent would go on to leave the parental home one last time for this so called re-launch.
The study suggests a good explanation behind this re-launch could be millennials graduating college and living at home for a short time while searching for employment before taking off again. One thing is for sure, this re-launch generation is being backed by some incredibly helpful parents. The parents are affluent too. The study revealed that parents in the top half of the income distribution were more likely to catch these boomerang children than those in the bottom half.
Watch out, Realtors, they’re about to launch
While this age group sample from the study may be delaying their home buying for a little while, they are an interesting demographic to watch out for. They are well educated and children of wealthy parents. The data suggests that the combination of family resources and education coupled with the desire these millennials have to someday own a home could be lucrative for the housing industry in the not too distant future.
Emily Crews is a staff writer at The American Genius and holds a degree in English from Western Kentucky University. Reading, music, black coffee, and her two little girls rule her life. She sees herself one day running a tiny bookstore at the end of the Earth. In the meantime, she is thrilled to write for AG and also does copy editing (team Oxford comma) to keep her brain from turning to mush.
