Amid a series of positive job and consumer confidence report, Millennials’ housing confidence appears to be on the rise. In the past quarter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, and report on college graduate job market have given good news to Millennials.
Since the beginning of the housing crisis, it has been a decade of doom and gloom for Millennials. According the ValueInsured Modern Homebuyer Survey, the much-needed confidence upswing for Millennials appears to be been set in motion. At the same time, this savvy and cautious cohort, infamously called the most fiscally conservative generation since the Great Depression who has a high concern level for personal debt, might have begun to worry less.
In our latest June 2016 quarterly survey, we learned that:
- 69% Millennials are confident the American housing market is healthy – up from 65% in March (+4 points)
- 73% Millennial non-homeowners believe buying a home is more financially beneficial than renting – up from 64% in March (+9 points)
- 47% Millennial non-homeowners are confident they can afford the down payment to buy their first home – up from 38% in March 2016 (+9 points)
- 78% Millennial non-homeowners say owning a home is an important part of their American Dream – up from 70% in March (+8 points)
- 83% Millennials say they believe they can achieve their American Dream – up from 78% in March (+5 points)
- 37% Millennials say their top American Dream is to be debt free – down from 40% in March (–3 points)
If this recent uptick in housing confidence persists, it could spell good news to move Millennials off the sideline and propel the first-time homebuyer market. 76% non-homeowning Millennials in the survey said they would like to buy a home now, and 67% said they would buy sooner with if they could have more confidence in the housing market.
Interestingly, 68% Millennial renters who want to buy a home now said they would buy sooner if they can have the confidence not to lose their down payment even if the market does down. With recent innovation in down payment protection that empowers buyers much the same way banks have been protected, along with the introduction of lower down payment mortgage programs by our nation’s major banks, we just may soon have the needed ingredients to erode the other infamous record of Millennials – the lowest homeownership rate in history.