Pandemic Rent vs Buy Trends
Prior to the pandemic, many millennials had little interest in owning a home, preferring travel and other types of experiences instead. The pandemic has flipped all of this upside down — homeownership has now become a key priority among millennials.
Much real estate data shows rental prices in multi-family buildings are decreasing in some areas while single-family rental prices are holding steady.
Coronovirus Lifestyle
The current data is showing a trend towards “resuburbanization,” where people trade the convenience of living downtown for more space and a less expensive lifestyle outside downtown metro areas. Recent data from markets across the country are showing the following:
- McMansions are making a comeback as more people create multi-generational households or merely need more space to accommodate working from home.
- Movement out of downtown communities to walkable areas in the close-in suburbs, small cities and rural areas.
A surge in second homes sales in areas located a two to four-hour drive away from major metropolitan areas.
Downsizing vs Rightsizing
When most people think of downsizing, they’re generally describing moving from a larger property into a smaller property. Today, rightsizing can also mean scaling up into a larger property. This is how Rightsizing.com describes the trend:
“Rightsizing is the concept of working with what you have by making better use of existing space. The promise is that you can live more fully in your home if you right size. Moreover, rightsizing is not just right for Boomers; Millennials and Gen X have embraced the movement as well. It’s about the quality of the space you need to meet your needs — not the quantity.”
More agents are reporting that they are working with the sandwich generation to combine housesholds... family members who decided to sell their two or three separate homes and purchase a much larger home or property with guest quarters where they could all live together, but separate and share responsibilities. Other buyers are searching for large parcels of land where they can build a family compound with multiple living units.
