How many millennials own a home? Not as many as their generational predecessors.
When the housing market crashed, many millennials were starting school or just finishing up. Meanwhile, their job prospects were weak, they don’t save very much, and priorities continue to shift.
In other words, it was and still is quite difficult to acquire a home. But this has cost millennials a lot of money.
According to a new study by RENTCafe, millennials spent $92,000 on rent between 22 and 30. The report finds that millennials in this age group allocate nearly half (45 percent) of their income on rent – this was 41 percent for Generation X and 36 percent for Baby Boomers.
Researchers also discovered that younger millennials (22 to 29) are paying more for rent than older millennials (30 to 40): $97,400 vs. $90,500.
This isn’t stopping millennials from renting, though.
From Business Journals:
The number of Millennial renters is rising, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2016, 65 percent of households headed by people younger than 35 were renting, compared to 57 percent in 2006.
Millennials have growing competition for rental space as more Baby Boomers sell their homes in exchange for rental property, CNBC reports. More than 5 million Baby Boomers are expected to rent their next home by 2020, per CNBC.
“You would think they would be buying and investing in property, but a lot of people like the convenience and ease of renting,” Phillip Salem, an agent at real estate brokerage firm Triplemint, told CNBC. “A lot of Millennials are moving into brand-new rentals, and a lot of Boomers are saying ‘That’s what’s I like too.'”
Can you really blame millennials for not buying property? Not really. It’s difficult to own and maintain a house in your 20s, plus by the time you’re in the market for a home, housing prices skyrocket, as they have done all over the country.
There’s a lot to gripe about millennials, but homeownership isn’t one of them.
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