NEW YORK–It may remain the American dream, but Millennials (age 25-40) are finding it hard even to afford where they live, and nearly impossible to buy a home.
A new report from Legal & General Group, U.S. Millennials and Home Ownership – A Distant Dream for Most, has found, perhaps not surprisingly, that in the wake of COVID-19, more and more young people are having to make difficult decisions about where to live.
“The pandemic forced many to go back home to their parents or hometown in order to be able to buy their own place, while remaining in a larger metropolitan area or even in their college town has moved further out of their reach,” the organization said in releasing its report.
The company said its study, which will be released in several focused segments, “talked to U.S. Millennials not as a homogeneous generation, but as three distinct age groups with highly individualized, often different housing needs,” the organization said.
Part 1 of the study focused the effects of the pandemic on home-buying sentiment and decisions across urban, suburban, and less populated geographies.
The Findings
Among the findings:
- Millennials broadly view COVID-19 as the latest obstacle in a “raw deal” on affordable housing
- 62% of U.S. Millennials say big cities are hard or extremely hard to afford
- 56% of U.S. Millennials say large metropolitan areas including suburbs are hard or extremely hard to afford
- Nearly half of Millennials are unhappy with their current location
- 33% would move to a smaller town due to affordability
- Cost of renting is so high that home ownership has been put on the back burner
‘Increasingly Unattainable’
“This study confirms that for most young adults, buying a home is an increasingly unattainable goal,” said Legal & General Group CEO Nigel Wilson. “Millennials we studied cited crushing student and medical debt, and the failure of wages to keep up with the cost of living as accelerators of this generational problem of unaffordable housing. If you’re under the age of 40, you’re part of a generation that needs access to a bigger and more broadly available supply of affordable housing than currently exists.”