Genz and millennials don't want your small starter homes want forever homes now

[Anonymous]

I'm a millennial, make more than 500K per year, own lots of real estate and I have zero interest in paying 7% interest rate on a million+. I'm staying in my townhouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our second house was a 5000sf 7br home in falls Church then we didn't like the schools and went to Langley high zone to a 8000sf we are under 42

You bought in the bad part of Falls Church?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We are millennials and bought a forever home

I'm a Millennial married to an Xer and we knew a decade ago not to buy a starter home. Why in this market would I want to pay realtor fees on upgrading when I could save that money for my kids' college tuitions? Why would I take on another mortgage when I paid off the one I have?

We stayed in our starter house and saved. Easier solution.

I mean our "forever home" is a 4 br, 3 ba, 1600 sq foot home we shove our five person family into. It fits us, but it's tight.

starter homes dont have four bedrooms and three baths. My house I grew up a family of six was a starter home had three bedrooms and one bath. 1,200 sf on a 40x100 plot.

Your house in that neighborhood would be called an Executive home My neighbors next block who were rich lawyers and doctors had the 1,600 sf models.

It goes to show how much home sizes have increased over last 50-80 years

This sounds horrific and I grew up in the city. What happened if anyone had stomach flu? How did you get ready in the morning? Even a simple shower takes at least 10 minutes, then also add flossing, shaving etc.

Are you for real? This is how many, many people grew up. You do your hair and makeup in the bedroom. You don’t take a 10 minute shower. I have my own bathroom today and I don’t take a 10 minute shower.

Yes. What a nightmare.

At least TRY to sound like less of a spoiled ignoramus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

Millennials are pretty old at this point though. They are 29-44 years old. Most people who are in their 40s aren’t going to be looking for a starter home. Like my parents are baby boomers and had their starter home in their early 20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

Millennials are pretty old at this point though. They are 29-44 years old. Most people who are in their 40s aren’t going to be looking for a starter home. Like my parents are baby boomers and had their starter home in their early 20s.

Once again … there are no more starter homes that anyone can afford in their 20s! especially since most people in their 20s have student loan debt. In this area a very thrifty 20 something could probably buy a small condo but as others have pointed out, that it not necessarily a good investment nor is it really a “starter home.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

This isn't what the article says. It says a lot of younger people don't see financial value in starter homes because the cost is mostly so prohibitive as to call it a starter home.

It says nothing about what younger buyers want in a house either in terms of size, renovations, or finishes. It simply says they cannot see investing in homes with the purpose of selling in 5-10 years as a sound strategy. And they're right. It may one day have been but interest plus purchase prices plus the uncertainty in the economy make it so that you may have to choose between retirement savings and home ownership savings and car savings and homes are not as prioritized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

This isn't what the article says. It says a lot of younger people don't see financial value in starter homes because the cost is mostly so prohibitive as to call it a starter home.

It says nothing about what younger buyers want in a house either in terms of size, renovations, or finishes. It simply says they cannot see investing in homes with the purpose of selling in 5-10 years as a sound strategy. And they're right. It may one day have been but interest plus purchase prices plus the uncertainty in the economy make it so that you may have to choose between retirement savings and home ownership savings and car savings and homes are not as prioritized.

In addition … I’m not sure that it was ever actually the case that people in large numbers consciously bought “starter homes” with the plan of moving in 5-10 years on the assumption that they would be able to buy a more expensive home, with the exception of the period before the financial crisis, and we all know how that worked out. I think people buy what they can afford. And these days most people in their 20s cannot afford a SFH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:My parent's "starter home" in Leesburg just sold for $990k. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/220-Queen-St-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/12408796_zpid/

They bought it in the 90s for around $140k. They sold it in 2005 after I graduated HS and built a house outside of Richmond.

I live in Leesburg with my own family and noticed the house had a Coming Soon sign when I went to drop off my kid at her friend's house nearby. I looked up the house and couldn't believe it was now going for almost $1mil. A lot of improvements have been made since I lived there as a kid, but still...the house seemed SO small growing up (fam of 5) and it is old (built in the 20s).

As a comparison, an empty lot 1 street over was purchased and had 2 new homes built on it. Each of those homes just sold for just slightly over $1mil. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/210-Catoctin-Cir-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/338416888_zpid/ and https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/208-Catoctin-Cir-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/12408332_zpid/.

If I was on the market, I would not pay almost $1mil for a 1920s house when I could get a new build for ~$50k more.

Starter homes are now condos, really. The pipeline now seems to go apartment (single) > condo (married, no kids) > townhome (married w/ kid) > home (forever home). I know so many people who bought a condo or townhome and lived in them for years before they were able to buy a home, and they have stayed in those homes rather than using them as "starter homes."

Same. My parents’ “starter home” purchased in the late 70s on an associate professor’s single income now is worth $1.5 mil. lol. The starter home is dead.

This! My husband and I bought our “starter home” in 2020 for $1.3M or $1.58M in today’s dollars and it’s now worth $1.96M. It is 4 beds/3 baths and 1950 sqft, if you include the small finished basement, and there is also a detached garage. The location is great: a 15 minute walk to the train, grocery store, restaurants, pharmacy, post office, playground, tennis courts, and ball fields; a 15 minute bike ride to the beach; and a 5 minute walk to the library and park with a pond. When we bought we were early 30s with one kid and our HHI had just leapt to $387K (at the time the avg HHI in our small part of town was $800K). Now we are mid-30s with $900K HHI and three kids. We would love to move to a larger home, but are prioritizing making upgrades to the space that will make it better for us and hopefully deliver a solid ROI, investing and saving, and paying for a nanny and sending our kids to a great private school. Ideally, we’ll move in 2029 and be able to roll well over a million in equity into another house. And if the market is bad, we like our house and location enough that we can wait it out or stay where we are.

How did you afford that price on $387K? Isn’t that like 5x your HHI at the time? Did you have a massive down payment? We’re early 30s at $800 HHI and there’s no way we’d go up to $1.5M but we also work in tech so we know every day making this $ is a gift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parent's "starter home" in Leesburg just sold for $990k. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/220-Queen-St-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/12408796_zpid/

They bought it in the 90s for around $140k. They sold it in 2005 after I graduated HS and built a house outside of Richmond.

I live in Leesburg with my own family and noticed the house had a Coming Soon sign when I went to drop off my kid at her friend's house nearby. I looked up the house and couldn't believe it was now going for almost $1mil. A lot of improvements have been made since I lived there as a kid, but still...the house seemed SO small growing up (fam of 5) and it is old (built in the 20s).

As a comparison, an empty lot 1 street over was purchased and had 2 new homes built on it. Each of those homes just sold for just slightly over $1mil. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/210-Catoctin-Cir-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/338416888_zpid/ and https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/208-Catoctin-Cir-NE-Leesburg-VA-20176/12408332_zpid/.

If I was on the market, I would not pay almost $1mil for a 1920s house when I could get a new build for ~$50k more.

Starter homes are now condos, really. The pipeline now seems to go apartment (single) > condo (married, no kids) > townhome (married w/ kid) > home (forever home). I know so many people who bought a condo or townhome and lived in them for years before they were able to buy a home, and they have stayed in those homes rather than using them as "starter homes."

Same. My parents’ “starter home” purchased in the late 70s on an associate professor’s single income now is worth $1.5 mil. lol. The starter home is dead.

This! My husband and I bought our “starter home” in 2020 for $1.3M or $1.58M in today’s dollars and it’s now worth $1.96M. It is 4 beds/3 baths and 1950 sqft, if you include the small finished basement, and there is also a detached garage. The location is great: a 15 minute walk to the train, grocery store, restaurants, pharmacy, post office, playground, tennis courts, and ball fields; a 15 minute bike ride to the beach; and a 5 minute walk to the library and park with a pond. When we bought we were early 30s with one kid and our HHI had just leapt to $387K (at the time the avg HHI in our small part of town was $800K). Now we are mid-30s with $900K HHI and three kids. We would love to move to a larger home, but are prioritizing making upgrades to the space that will make it better for us and hopefully deliver a solid ROI, investing and saving, and paying for a nanny and sending our kids to a great private school. Ideally, we’ll move in 2029 and be able to roll well over a million in equity into another house. And if the market is bad, we like our house and location enough that we can wait it out or stay where we are.

How did you afford that price on $387K? Isn’t that like 5x your HHI at the time? Did you have a massive down payment? We’re early 30s at $800 HHI and there’s no way we’d go up to $1.5M but we also work in tech so we know every day making this $ is a gift.

It depends on the stability of your income and your potential for future income growth. We bought a $1.5m house with 30% down, 5.5% mortgage and $400k hhi. But I have extremely stable employment and total comp grew to $750k within 2 years, on track to increase to 7 figures within the next few years.

[Anonymous]

So why is the small starter homes in my neighborhood sell so fast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

This isn't what the article says. It says a lot of younger people don't see financial value in starter homes because the cost is mostly so prohibitive as to call it a starter home.

It says nothing about what younger buyers want in a house either in terms of size, renovations, or finishes. It simply says they cannot see investing in homes with the purpose of selling in 5-10 years as a sound strategy. And they're right. It may one day have been but interest plus purchase prices plus the uncertainty in the economy make it so that you may have to choose between retirement savings and home ownership savings and car savings and homes are not as prioritized.

In addition … I’m not sure that it was ever actually the case that people in large numbers consciously bought “starter homes” with the plan of moving in 5-10 years on the assumption that they would be able to buy a more expensive home, with the exception of the period before the financial crisis, and we all know how that worked out. I think people buy what they can afford. And these days most people in their 20s cannot afford a SFH.

Stop making sense! It's so much more fun to shit on millenials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rather than climb the ladder we will wait for the forever big home. Sorry please tear down those little homes and ensure you provide recently renovated or new larger homes

https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-millennials-dont-want-buy-starter-homes-2069778

This isn't what the article says. It says a lot of younger people don't see financial value in starter homes because the cost is mostly so prohibitive as to call it a starter home.

It says nothing about what younger buyers want in a house either in terms of size, renovations, or finishes. It simply says they cannot see investing in homes with the purpose of selling in 5-10 years as a sound strategy. And they're right. It may one day have been but interest plus purchase prices plus the uncertainty in the economy make it so that you may have to choose between retirement savings and home ownership savings and car savings and homes are not as prioritized.

In addition … I’m not sure that it was ever actually the case that people in large numbers consciously bought “starter homes” with the plan of moving in 5-10 years on the assumption that they would be able to buy a more expensive home, with the exception of the period before the financial crisis, and we all know how that worked out. I think people buy what they can afford. And these days most people in their 20s cannot afford a SFH.

Yeah I think this was a very niche concept for UMC and wealthy folks that's been memorialized as a cultural phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

Well,too bad. Our starter home was/ is our forever home. People need to pull their heads out of their butts. This business that they can't buy a house is stupid. They just can't buy a mansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why is the small starter homes in my neighborhood sell so fast?

In my area too. Peope are finally wiseing up.

[Anonymous]

Most of us millennials on here are rich though. I don’t own a “starter” home, I own a “home home” (> 4,000 sq ft, W school district, huge yard, etc.)