Millennials are the last missing piece to the recovering housing industry. The Federal Bank of Atlanta, wrote earlier this year that there is a huge pent-up demand from millennials who have delayed buying a house until they believed the economy's improvement is for real. It is for real.
5 reasons millenials should enter the housing market now:
1. Interest rates are low. Average weekly interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage remain under 4.5 percent. Even a slight rate increase can push monthly payments to the point that a buyer might miss out on their first choice for a new home.
2. Huge down payments are not necessary. For example, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers loans to first-time home buyers with down payments as low as 3.5 percent.
3. New homes are built to fit your lifestyle. Designed to accommodate today’s busy lifestyles, new homes — including urban condos and single-family homes — feature open floor plans, flexible spaces, low-maintenance materials and other amenities that appeal to younger buyers. Not only can they be more affordable to operate, new homes also are significantly more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly.
4. Technology makes house shopping fun and easy. Today’s tech-savvy home buyers use mobile apps to quickly gather all of the key information on a property and to see extensive photos from their cell phones or tablets.
5. Owning a home can help young families combat rising rents. For most Americans, homeownership is a primary element of their net worth, and is an important step in accumulating personal financial assets over the long term. At the same time, rent prices continue to climb — by 2.8 percent in 2013.