Buying a house may be increasingly challenging, but the significance of purchasing property has only gotten more important to those in a certain age group.
More than any other generation, millennials believe making it — and truly making it — means buying a house, new research has found.
According to this year’s Bank of America Homebuyer Insights Report, “homeownership is more important for Millennials than for their parents at the same age.”
This is despite the odds being economically stacked against them. Younger people are “disproportionately hurt” by spiking mortgage rates and older millennials (those who are currently 35 to 45) face a “bigger financial burden” than other age groups as a result of having the largest share of outstanding student loans and the fastest rise in credit card delinquencies, the report noted.
As unachievable as it is, 58% of millennials surveyed felt homeownership is more important now than it was for their parents, and an even higher percentage (60%) of Gen Z agreed, while only 26% of Baby Boomers felt the same.
Possibly, this is reflective of a self-fulfilling cycle whereby real estate becomes more important and appealing because it has become less attainable.
And there’s a significant chance that platforms like Instagram and Facebook are adding quite a bit of fuel to the homebuying fire.
“On social media, a plethora of ‘instant millionaires’ showing off their ‘perfect lives’ with big houses, supercars, and seemingly unlimited wealth pressures millennials to go big or go home,” Elena Nunez Cooper, CEO of Ascend PR, told Fortune. “Even if a millennial prefers to stay off social media, there is a constant flow of media that pushes the idea that owning a home as a thirtysomething is a must, and if you do not have a home, you must be failing at life.”
The sentiment may be contagious, as Bank of America found that, irrespective of age, those it surveyed ranked homeownership — above paying down debt, retiring early and having an emergency fund — as the No. 1 definition of financial success.
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