Who doesn’t feel overwhelmed, or maybe even underwhelmed, by all the data that is available on the Millennial generation. Because they are the most researched and understood cohort in history, there is oodles of information available at your fingertips.
As is the case these days, it’s not only capturing that data, but finding the relevancy and then applying it to your business that matters. This presentation, provided by the data team at Metrostudy, does that – it reveals new information about Millennials as it pertains to housing in a way that can enable immediate action.
Millennials, now ages 20 to 35, born between 1981 and 1996, are the most diverse generation. They also have different values and behavioral drivers. As Metrostudy points out, their top values are quite different than other generations. Compared to other generations, millennials value happiness, passion, diversity, sharing and discovery more. Whereas Baby Boomers find the values of family, integrity, justice, practicality and duty much stronger. What also makes Millennials unique is that they align with brands that share their values.
This presentation asks and answers: Will they stop renting or stop living with mom and dad? Their student debt is higher than it has ever been for anyone before them. They have that as a burden, and, housing has responded to their desires. Developers have made rental properties into amenity-rich cribs that they really don’t want to leave. Will they give up that lifestyle to own and maintain their own home?
The drop in home ownership as explained by Metrostudy is fairly alarming. In 1968, 56 percent of 18- to 31-year-olds owned their own homes. In 2012, that number dropped to 23 percent. There are specific markets that aren’t seeing that and where Millennials are actually purchasing more new homes than their Baby Boom and Gen X counterparts.
The Atlantic points out that Millennials are choosing new alternatives because they are more affordable.
Home ownership is still viewed as a central component of living out the American dream, but the ways that many present-day Americans are pushing back on modern living arrangements closely resemble what came centuries, even millennia, before in other parts of the world. Family members, relatives, neighbors, and strangers are coming together to live in groups that work for them—a bit like medieval Europe. “Today, all across the nation, Americans are living the new happily ever after,” writes the social psychologist Bella DePaulo in her 2015 book How We Live Now: Redefining Home and Family in the 21st Century. “The ‘new’ part is that people with whom they are sharing homes and lives are not just spouses or romantic partners.”
Instead of limiting their households to children, parents, and grandparents, plenty of people are going a step further, making homes with friends and even strangers. Co-housing, in which a large community lives together and shares household duties, is gaining popularity. In co-housing, individuals or families generally have their own houses, bedrooms, or apartments but share things like kitchens and community spaces. They’ll commonly trade off on responsibilities like cooking and chores. Milagro Housing, for instance, is a co-housing community located in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. There, families, couples, and single people live in 28 homes in a tight-knit community that shares a kitchen, laundry room, library, meeting room, playroom, and storage rooms.
Regardless of the market that they live in, that they are going to shop in, or that they aspire to move to, every Millennial loves technology. Why is this important? Because you have to relate to them. They do all their research online, even for small purchases, and 51 percent cannot go more than an hour without their mobile device(s).
Find a more detailed outline of Millennials, what makes them tick and how you can market to them with this Metrostudy presentation.
