Generation X is Looking For A Different Home Than The Baby Boomers
As the Baby Boomers start to gray, Generation X is coming to the forefront in the minds of homesellers and builders. And what is interesting, the homes that the baby boomers craved is not the same home that the Gen-Xers are looking for. The Real Estate Journal has an informative article on the changing demographics of home building and home buying.
Generation X is in the heart of their entry-level home-buying years and are just now entering their peak trade-up years,” Chung said. “They haven’t yet stolen the thunder of the boomers when it comes to trade-up homes. It’s a big shift coming up for home builders and developers.”
Partly because many Gen-Xers are buying into the market after the run-up in housing prices began about a decade ago, they tend not to be as moved by deluxe kitchens, huge square footage and “prestige addresses” as their older counterparts are, he said.
“It’s the trade-off generation. It’s no longer sort of the live-large mindset,” Chung said. “They’re living under different economic realities than their predecessors. They carry 70% more debt than the baby boomers did at that point in their lives because of the cost of housing…. Almost all of that is housing debt.”
Many are forgoing master suites and separate wings for kids and adults and instead seeking smaller footprints with space designed for family usage rather than individual usage, Chung said. via RealEstateJournal
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Comment by Athol Kay on 7 November 2006:
Gen-X carry more total debt likely, but I recall my parents paying 17-18% interest rates in the 80’s. I wonder if total debt servicing is too much different. However I do agree that we don’t tend to look for mansions like the Boomers do. Once you get over 3500 or so sqft it starts feeling retardedly big to me unless you have a seriously well planned home office etc that is actually used. Just furnishing a huge house and cleaning it is a needless chore.
Cable or DSL internet connection is as serious a thought in my mind as City Water/Sever vs Well/Septic though.
Comment by Etienne Chabot on 8 November 2006:
Hi, do you have an idea of the proportion of new houses that will be purchased by Gen x vs Baby boomers in the next 5-6 years?
I am trying to find statistics about that but I haven’t seen anything so far.
Thanks!
Etienne Chabot
Product Manager
Maax
Comment by Pancho777 on 8 November 2006:
Gen-Xers like us don’t want extra rooms for more STUFF, we would rather travel. The Mcmansion is dying as the masonite wrinkles and peels off and all the CACA in the house sits and collects diust. Watch for rowhouses, condos, co-housing and 900 square foot floorplans to take center stage by 2010.
Comment by Marc Brinitzer on 7 January 2007:
This is a fascinating subject.
As a mortgage broker in the high-end part of Sacramento, I have watched the boomers purchase their “starter castles”, super-sizing their houses, cars, and lifestyles to a grotesque degree.
For many, the idea was to leverage the astonishing appreciation we’ve seen. But the market is changing, and I’ve often wondered how many are lining up to buy those homes tomorrow?
The fascinating and very likely possibility is that the Gen Xers won’t want to play the same game, choosing travel and experience rather than trying to out accumulate their parents. Wouldn’t that be interesting!!
Comment by CZanne Howard on 2 April 2008:
I am Gen X and those horrible little ticky-tacky boxes? You can keep ‘em. If can’t walk to a grocery, a bar, a restaurant, a bookstore and a park, I’m not interested. I don’t need huge rooms, but I need excellent design. I’d rather have a Katrina Cottage (which is gorgeously designed) and appropriate possessions than a hunk of gypsum and marketing. Location’s important — I want to be able to walk to work.
Gen X grew up in suburbia. We left, and we’re not going back. We hated tracts then and we hate them now. Give us New Urban Guild planning, downtown revitalization, urban community. Give us public transportation, our version of community and solid technical standards.
Comment by Jason on 28 January 2009:
Everything is cyclical. I am Gen X and we too lived in the suburbs and rural america. I longed to live in the city so I moved there, and started a family. I am sure when I am old and gray and my kids move out, they will search for something that is different than what they knew growing up. This happens in everything. The issue now is that many people living in the exurbs now will not be there in 20 years. Who is going to want those houses? Low income will be pushed out but at what price? You are right when Gen X is looking for something different. Developers are not building it. Gen X loves history and technology. They want to be in the action but still be able to get away if needed. They want coffee shops on sunday mornings, zoos to take the kids to, and museums to experience.
Bye bye suburbs- your time has come and you better change or die.
Jason