Apparently Gen-Zers like snow, and lots of it. And they don’t like big cities.
A new Lending Tree report shows that those born between 1997 and 2012 that are buying homes have made Salt Lake City, Utah, where it snows about 500 inches a year, their most popular destination. Almost 17% of that generation who were offered a mortgage went there. It was also Salt Lake’s second consecutive year to top the list.
Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City, Ok.,Cincinnati, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana, rounded out the top five.
For the second straight year Gen-Zers also stayed away from San Francisco, Ca., with only 3.64% of mortgages being offered to them there, the report said.
New York City, San Jose, Ca., Los Angeles, Ca., and Boston Ma., rounded out the top five.
LendingTree's Senior Economic Analyst and report author, Jacob Channel, said that while Gen Zers don’t make up a huge portion of homebuyers in the nation’s largest metros, their numbers are growing.
“And, like millennials before them, they’re poised to become one of the biggest forces in the housing market over the next few decades,” Channel said. “Though Gen Zers old enough to buy a house in the near future will likely face headwinds including high home prices and rising mortgage rates, our study illustrates that becoming a homeowner is still possible for many homeowners.”
A common theme in the report is that the most popular destinations were also among the least expensive and the least popular were the most expensive.
Other takeaways from the report included:
Gen Z credit scores were highest in San Francisco and lowest in New Orleans, La.
The average down payment was the highest in Los Angeles and the lowest in New Orleans, and there was a $35,155 difference between the two.
The average loan amount was highest in San Jose, at $425,525 and the lowest was in Louisville, at $171,773
Gen Zers account for an average of 10% of homebuyers across the nation’s 50 largest metros.
LendingTree used generational definitions from the Pew Research Center to define the age range for Gen Zers as being born between 1997 and 2012.
Borrower data was derived from mortgage offers given to more than 890,000 users of the LendingTree mortgage shopping platform across the nation’s 50 largest metros from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021.
