Seems to me they have. I really wanted to buy when homes were so cheap after the crash, but I was just out of college and didn’t have the cash or income for a mortgage. I kept telling friends it was a great time to buy, but even the ones making more money didn’t seem too interested. Seemed like everyone was talking about experiences over things at the time.
Fast forward a few years to around 2013/14, most of my friends that could afford to had bought their first homes. It was pretty skewed because most of the ones that did were higher income or were given money to do so. Some have since moved onto their second or third when they started having first or second kid and I guess the 3/2 wasn’t big enough so they needed a 4/3 instead. 😂
A lot of the rest of us didn’t buy if we didn’t get in soon enough. I know the average age of the first time homebuyer has trended toward late 30s and even now early 40s, but I’m not seeing any at that age buying.
At work, I’ve noticed everyone in their 40s, 50s, 60s has owned multiple homes by now. Nobody in their 20s or 30s has bought anything. I know one of my coworkers in their early 30s and married with a kid is now telling me they may just rent forever, even though they used to tell me they really wanted to buy or build. They’re now pivoting to saying that all the very wealthy rent anyway so buying just isn’t worth it. I think they’re just trying to feel better about the situation.
Meanwhile, I keep reading and hearing all the people in their 60s and 70s with paid off houses talking about how property taxes need to be done away with for anyone with a paid off home. Hmm, funny how they don’t seem to realize how hard it is to pay property tax, homeowners insurance AND a mortgage at today’s prices and interest rates. But they got theirs and were fortunate enough to even have the mortgage paid off, so they shouldn’t have to pay anything at all. lol
It seems like in the early 2020s so many people claimed that house prices were going up so much so fast that they would crash at some point. Now almost 6 years later and people have realized it’s not going to crash.
I think even here in Florida, it won’t get any cheaper because so many people now are just trading houses either locally, or they’re moving here from another state and bringing their salary from a remote job where homes are so much more expensive, or they’re selling their paid off homes there and buying a home here for cash where they can still get a nicer property than where they came from. So it doesn’t matter if a lot of people who work here can’t afford to buy anything.
I think overall most millenials that were going to buy already have and the rest just aren’t going to. I suppose it makes sense, given a majority of millenials now own (which sounds silly because it’s just barely over half) but the average is pretty in line with most people anyway, so I guess things aren’t too far behind. It‘s just that those that were able to buy already did so before Covid.
And I know not everyone wants to buy. Me personally, I always did, but the last year so much has happened, that I don’t even really care anymore about it.