The Wall Street Journal posted an article yesterday that reaffirms the data from the National Housing Report. The article discusses the next trend in the housing market: millennials buying houses. Instead of the previous homeownership boost through the government providing incentives to banks, this homeownership boost comes from millennials preference to buying over renting. In fact:
The homeownership rate among households headed by someone under 35 rose to 36% in the fourth quarter from 34.7% a year earlier. This was by far the largest increase of any age group during the period.
So what does that mean for the Augusta housing market? Well, you’ve already seen it! Constant growth in developing areas such as Evans or Grovetown will continue as more millennials purchase homes. The influx of home purchases will lead to an increase in spending for other categories like furniture, improvement and more. The increase in overall economic activity will benefit the CSRA as more businesses come into the area.
There is one con when homeownership rates increase: less houses on the market. When there are less houses on the market than buyers willing and able to buy, house prices will rise. While great for sellers looking to make more profit off of their home, buyers, especially first time home buyers, are less likely to purchase from higher prices. It will be interesting to see how many homes will get multiple offers in 2018 from lack of inventory. It will also be interesting to see if cost of living will rise dramatically with cyber moving into the area.
We will update with more information as we progress into 2018.
