Most Millennials Express Buyer’s Remorse on Home Purchase

Feb 28, 2019

You can lead a Millennial into homeownership but you can’t make that young person happy, according to data from a new study released by Bankrate.com.

In a survey of 2,668 adults that included 1,493 homeowners, 63 percent of Millennial respondents who owned their own residence said they had regrets with their current home purchase. In comparison, only 35 percent of Baby Boomers were remorseful over their home purchase, while 44 percent of all demographics admitted to be less than pleased with their residential acquisition.

The most common regret from all respondents—an 18 percent response—was the failure to factor in unexpected maintenance or hidden costs of owning a home. Among Millennials, that level was 25 percent. The full homeowner response rate also cited concerns that the house was too small (12 percent), too big (5 percent), located in a bad area (eight percent), high mortgage payments (seven percent), not getting the best possible mortgage rate (six percent) or the gnawing belief that homeownership was a poor investment (seven percent).

“Buyer’s remorse can easily be avoided with adequate research and planning,” said Deborah Kearns, an analyst at Bankrate.com “Repairs and maintenance costs are something all homeowners face. Consumers should expect to set aside one percent of their home’s purchase price each year to keep in a savings account to cover these expenses. Budgeting early on can prevent dipping into emergency savings or going into debt to handle these added expenses.”

Nonetheless, 79 percent of survey respondents considered homeownership to be a part of the “American Dream,” ahead of being able to retire (68 percent), having a successful career (63 percent) and owning an automobile (58 percent). As for the survey respondents who were not homeowners, 51 percent complained that they lacked the income to pursue homeownership while 41 percent felt they could not cover a downpayment and/or closing costs and 34 percent felt home prices were too high.

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Phil Hall

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Feb 28, 2019

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