I spent a great deal of time the last couple of weeks doing research for a chapter in the 2016 Swanepoel Trends Report. It’s still in progress, but I rather think it’ll be awesome when it comes out.
I was going to write a post or two about it but… you know, I think it’s a greater service to the best informed readers in the industry to just post this video that you probably haven’t watched. If you care about Millennials and housing — and how can you not? — you should watch this whole thing. It’s long, and slightly boring and dry, but it’s worth it.
Oh, and you should get a copy of the 2016 Report. 🙂
https://youtu.be/4k62_wq9sOs
Your thoughts and experiences are, as always, welcome.
-rsh
5 thoughts on “Care About Millennials? You Should Watch This”
Really good stuff. I’d skip right to the panel at 38:00, the presentation didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.
From a personal standpoint, I’d like to see developers focus on varying their offerings. Cottage developments with fewer stairs for instance. In my area (Nashville, TN) there are apartments going up everywhere, but almost all of the new residential units that are purchase-able are two or even three story properties which alienate a large portion of buyers. There is a huge influx of urban infill here where you tear down one house and build two tall skinny houses in it’s place. Is that phenomenon happening in other cities?
Agreed; it’s the panel that’s really illuminating.
Question about Nashville, though, and all urban areas. So if a developer does an infill there, near the highly desirable urban core areas (with restaurants, parks, etc. that these Millennials say they want), would those narrower/smaller homes be priced where they become affordable?
The thing I kept hearing was that the homes in the areas where these young professionals want to live and maintain their lifestyle are not affordable for them. I guess I’m wondering what could change that from a developer standpoint. Land is land is land, right? And desirable location is desirable location, which then implies a premium due to high demand, whatever the kind of housing that gets built there, no?
In our experience, infill redevelopment is predominately occurring in the more affluent communities. IMO the transformation of older, mostly obsolete, housing stock is the future of real estate (not a trend).
I think what we will begin to see is reverse zoning i.e. downsizing buildable properties in attractive but less affluent (expensive) communities making new infill housing affordable for the millennials and their preferences.
Just my thoughts.
Brian 🙂
I would think it’s not a matter of the housing being too expensive, but rather the millennials just not having enough money.
Hearing the words “lifestyle”, “walkability”, and “community” quite a bit as I’m watching this.. definitely agree. Same things my friends and I prioritize.
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