Housing

Nearly Half of Millennials Don't Want to Be Homeowners

Paul Ausick

Published: February 9, 2016 1:55 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:25 pm

Not only is the millennial generation buying fewer cars than its predecessors, it seems that millennials are also less interested in buying homes. A lot less interested.

According to a new report from Bankrate, 44% of millennials don’t want to own a home right now. Bankrate’s conclusion is that this data point suggests that “more millennials are planning on settling down later in life and are not looking for a long-term commitment.”

Another data point: nearly half of non-homeowners say their financial situation stands in the way of buying a house. Some 29% say they can’t afford a down payment and 16% say their credit is not good enough to qualify for a mortgage. More than a third (35%) also say that they don’t want to be homeowners yet.

Bankrate also reported that more than 40% of “middle-aged Americans” do not own a house. More than 30% say that can’t afford a down payment and 20% say they have lousy credit.

A senior mortgage analyst at Bankrate.com said:

It’s not surprising that a lot of millennials aren’t interested in home ownership yet. Renting allows them more freedom to move. For people in the prime child-rearing years of 30 to 49, it’s more complicated. A lot of them have income and credit issues that might have roots in the recession.

Methodology
Princeton Survey Research Associates International obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 2,002 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (1,000) and cell phone (1,002, including 631 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from January 21 to 24 and 28 to 31, 2016. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.