Twenty-eight-year-old Adam Harris pays $925 a month rent for a multi-room studio apartment in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago. Although Harris would love to buy a home someday in the future, for now, it’s not in the cards.
“I plan to eventually buy a condo or home but have not done so because of financial reasons,” said Harris. “I don’t feel like that money is wasted, because I live where I want to live without the means to buy.”
Harris definitely isn’t alone. Many young renters are like him and hope to buy a home in the future, according to a new quarterly consumer survey recently released by the National Association of Realtors.
The National Association of Realtors’ inaugural quarterly household survey, called Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (or HOME), tracks topical real estate trends, including current renters and homeowners’ views and aspirations regarding homeownership.
The survey data revealed that 94 percent of current renters age 34 or younger want to own a home in the future.
Those findings seem to debunk the idea that young people aren’t interested in buying a home but actually, wanting to own a home seems to be a personal goal for many young renters. The inability to afford to buy (53 percent) and needing the flexibility of renting rather than owning (19 percent), were the top two reasons given for not currently owning, according to the survey.
Thirty-year-old Sophie Gaziano was renting in Forest Park when she and her husband, Joe, decided it was time to buy a home after they had a baby. Yet the couple thought it was too expensive to live in Forest Park, Oak Park and River Forest, all of which they loved and thought “had so much to offer.”
“If money was not an object, we would have scooped up a house across the street,” said Gaziano. “It had everything we wanted … diversity, families walking with dogs.
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“There was some ease in renting if you had great landlords,” said Gaziano, who wishes she could transport her new house to the Forest Park area. “With a house, now all the maintenance and ownership is on you, which is exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. Plus, it’s scary to be paying something for 30 years, plus school loans, car loans … the list goes on.”
A lot of young people — millennials — are coming into the market, said Nikki Mayer, owner/broker at Hometown Real Estate, on the Elmwood Park border.
“The timeline has changed a little bit … it was the birth of a child, kindergarten, graduation,” said Mayer. “Now we see millennial couples coming into a condo, spending the toddler years there, and then moving into a house.”
Lack of money is one thing stopping 30-year-old Tanya Feketitsch. Yet she added that her generation is getting married later and later and they’re “not just going off and buying homes alone.” Feketitsch also likes that she can quickly call her landlord if anything breaks down.
“I live in a condo and I wouldn’t want to own it right now because I am 30,” said Feketitsch. “I am still trying to make more money … I still don’t know what I want to do.
“Money is stopping me and if I found a guy I’d like to settle down with … probably the next guy I date will be someone I want to marry, so probably my next place will be with someone I want to marry,” said Feketitsch.
“My mother could only dream!” she laughed.
Felicia Dechter is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press. Got a real estate-related story idea? Email [email protected].