FACT: 30% of first-time home buyers are now Millennials. - It's a digital world
The home buying experience has undergone a seismic shift. Highly informed, digitally native millennials are increasingly beginning their home buying journeys online, with self-service platforms like Zillow and Trulia. The lion’s share of homebuyers are now under the age of 36, and 66% of these are first-timers.
Whereas most consumers once used newspapers, flyers, or realtors to research and buy homes, they’re now flying solo:
This is the age of the self-service home buying market, where consumers can search at any time, from anywhere, and share their results via text, email, and social media platforms.
In the millennial demographic, 1 in every 5 minutes spent online is on Facebook, and 30% of first-time home buyers are now millennials. Younger demographics increasingly consume all their information through social media, and that includes researching and buying real estate.
What kinds of information are millennials seeking out during their home buying process? School statistics, police and crime statistics, neighborhood information, and tax histories on properties.
They’re also turning to the web to research mortgages. Consumers want to know what they’ll be on the hook for financially if and when they pull the trigger on buying a new home. And they’re already using social to answer these questions.
But despite the fact that consumers are increasingly doing self-service shopping during the beginning of their home buying journey, the vast majority still end up working with an agent (88% for all buyers and 92% for millennials).
And buyers are still financing. 88% of all buyers, and 98% of millennials finance their homes. In other words, most buyers will still want and need to engage a loan officer or a mortgage company.
Source: Gremlin Social Media Statistics 06.2018
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