How Long Does Your Generation Shop for Homes?
Posted On October 11, 2016
(Special Blog today comes courtesy of Zillow who researches generational trends on their users and homebuyers across the market place.) By Jennifer Riner Every generation offers specific trends, habits and lifestyles that sets them apart from their predecessors. Much like Generation X differs from their Baby Boomer elders, Generation Y thinks outside of the box when it comes to finding their perfect homes. A recent Zillow survey conducted by Ipsos of 2,010 American adults revealed how home and mortgage shopping trends differ across age groups. Regardless of generation, the average American spends 26 hours finding their perfect place and just… Read More
Categories: Financial Services, Generations, Real Estate
Retirement With Gobs of Debt – A Boomer Dilemma
Posted On October 4, 2016
How much debt are you carrying? Most of us have some credit card debt. Many of us also have mortgages or student loans. Some of us are also carrying debt from home equity loans or lines of credit. As we get older, the volume of debt we’re carrying becomes an exponentially greater threat to our retirement – particularly with the demise of pensions and private-sector retiree healthcare benefits. One might think Baby Boomers would be past some of this, having gone to college before tuition skyrocketed and having had plenty of time to pay off their homes. But while they… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Home Ownership, Retirement
Mike Rowe’s message continues to find traction
Posted On September 21, 2016
Mike Rowe has made a career out of, for a day, doing jobs that most people wouldn’t want. The host of the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs” is a funny guy who isn’t bashful about making fun of himself while he’s elbow deep in mud, manure, fish entrails or some other nastiness, and that makes his show entertaining. But beyond cracking jokes, grossing out his audience and drawing ratings, Rowe’s show has a purpose – demonstrating that one doesn’t have to work in an office building or wear a coat and tie to make a good living. He has doubled… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
Exodus? Well, kinda. Millennials, suburbia, families, and stereotypes.
Posted On September 12, 2016
Part of the picture most of us tend to have about millennials is of an urban existence. Mass transit. Refurbished lofts. Biking to Starbucks for a Frappuccino or the local craft brewery for a beer. But is it an accurate picture? According to FiveThirtyEight.com, not so much. Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, FiveThirtyEight’s Jed Kolko notes that millennials ages 25-34 between the years of 2009-13 were actually slightly less likely to live in urban areas than 25- to 34-year-olds in 2000. While the percentage of college-educated millennials living in hyper-urban areas, those with the greatest population density, has… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Home Ownership
Top Cities for Millennials to Live Alone
Posted On September 7, 2016
(Today’s blog courtesy of Zillow.com. Thanks to Zillow for reaching out and offering this info. Good stuff.) By Jennifer Riner Less than 9 percent of Millennials live solo these days – a portion of the population that’s been in decline for the past few years. Because of unaffordable rents and rising home prices, a vast number of young people opt to live with family or friends to cut housing costs that might otherwise send them into the red zone. Between 2000 and 2013, the percentage of 23- to 34-year-olds living with family increased 46 percent. The no. 1 place… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Home Ownership, Real Estate
Your brand don’t matter. You better bring it.
Posted On August 17, 2016
Generation X is, in many ways, the forgotten generation. Its numbers lag well behind Baby Boomers and millennials. It has not yet reached the concentration of wealth amassed, as a group, by the Baby Boomers. And it no longer gets to decide what’s cool, as it has passed that torch to the millennials. But Generation X is still a valuable and sought-after market. And they apparently like to drive SUVs. Companies like Ford, whose Explorer Sport is a top-seller among Gen-Xers, are aggressively targeting the latchkey kid generation, Forbes automotive contributor Dale Buss found, and they have solid reasons for… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Automotive, Generation X
Millennials & Marriage Trends
Posted On August 8, 2016
Millennials are getting married later than their parents and grandparents did. Statistics compiled by the Pew Research Center a couple of years ago showed that only 26 percent of millennials got married between the ages of 18 and 32, compared to 36 percent of Gen-Xers, 48 percent of Baby Boomers and 65 percent of what it calls the “Silent” generation, taken from the 1960 census. Some may suggest that this is a product of millennials being the Participation Trophy Generation. Young adults who were always praised as children and never allowed to fail might logically be expected to have difficulty… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials
Millennial House Buying & Student Debt
Posted On August 3, 2016
When are those Millennials going to start buying homes? This is a question many of us – such as economists, policy-makers, realtors, and homebuilders – keep asking. It is a well-known fact that homeownership rates among younger Americans have declined over the last 10 years. For example, in 2004 around 43% of people under the age of 35 were homeowners. That has steadily declined, to the point where in 2015 only 35% of them are homeowners. Why the decline? Most analysts point to higher levels of student debt as the reason. In mid-July the White House jumped into the fray,… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Home Ownership
Brexit to the Millennials – Uppercut to the Jaw
Posted On July 26, 2016
When Great Britain voted to leave the European Union last month, an issue known globally by the mashup term Brexit, generational politics and preferences played a huge role in the result. Younger people voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, while older voters largely opted out. According to polling cited by Time, less than 20 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 supported Brexit, while nearly 60 percent of those old enough to receive pensions were in favor. According to the Telegraph, Brexit’s passage was due in large part to high turnout among those older voters in… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, Wealth
Entitled? Or bad timing? Or maybe a little of both?
Posted On July 21, 2016
Are millennials really the lazy, entitled brats they’re made out to be? Or is the millennial stereotype a media creation? Sarah Kendzior suggests in a recent article for Quartz that the image of millennials as spoiled narcissists is a media-generated “myth” that ignores the economic conditions under which the generation has grown. Far from expecting a plethora of options to cater to their whims, Kendzior argues millennials have suffered from a lack of options in the wake of the Great Recession, with lower incomes, less mobility and greater dependence on relatives than previous generations. Let’s say this out the outset:… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recession Economy, Uncategorized, Work