The housing market is projected to heat up in 2019, and new data from Realtor.com indicates this push will predominantly be driven by Millennial women.
According to the company’s latest study, 50% of the top 20, and seven of the top 10, fastest growing buyer first names belong to Millennial women.
“Although older Baby Boomer and Silent Generation women are leading the charge, the increase in deeds with female names is particularly visible when comparing genders within the Millennial generation,” Realtor.com writes.
The report states that when looking solely at names with a peak birth year between 1981 and 1997, Millennial female names outpace their male counterparts in home sales by 1.5%.
“First names associated with women — especially Millennial women — saw a significantly faster level of home sales growth in 2018, giving us a sneak peek of homeownership trends in 2019,” Realtor.com Director of Economics Research Javier Vivas said.
Interestingly, Realtor.com’s data also points to another trend – a rise in Hispanic homeownership.
According to the company’s data, home sales associated with traditionally Hispanic names and partially Hispanic names increased by 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively, year-over-year.
That’s a significant increase, considering non-Hispanic names remained virtually stagnant at a rate of 0.1% from the previous year.
“Hispanics and Millennials names overall also saw a surge in home purchases last year,” Vivas said. “If these buyers can continue to break through the affordability barrier, they are likely to make up a larger share of owners than ever before and dominate the market for years to come.”
NOTE: Realtor.com’s report analyzed residential non-corporate transactions, ranging from January through September 2018. Notably, the company compared name demographic data from the Social Security Administration and deed record buyer information to gauge young buyer influence in the housing market.
