New generation of homebuyers have new ideas about "home"

The nation's real estate professionals know that 76 million baby-boomers have strong influence on the market. But stronger than they? Their kids. According to S. Mitra Kalita and Robbie Whelan of WSJ.com, "An estimated 80 million people comprise the category known as 'Gen Y,' youth born roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s." And these young buyers don't want their parents' houses.

The recent National Association of Home Builders conference included a presentation on this generation, labled "Gen Y," and its housing preferences. Pulling from survey data, Melina Duggal, a "principal with Orlando-based real estate adviser RCLCO," found that tastes are changing. "Here's what Generation Y doesn't want: formal living rooms, soaker bathtubs, dependence on a car."

"One-third are willing to pay for the ability to walk," Ms. Duggal said. "They don't want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. ...The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y."

Evolve indeed, since according to the survey, some familiar favorites are no longer favored. Meanwhile, other more novel features are gaining popularity, especially among the growing sect of Americans, christened "dawdlers," who-- though in their 30s, haven't married or had children yet.

Survey says: what does Gen Y want?

1. New ideas on outdoor space

Common patios instead of private yards: People want to be outside their units, but they don't want big, thirsty lawns. Most respondents want only a place to gather with friends, and cook outdoors. How can a seller or architect cash in on this trend? "'Outdoor fire pits,' suggested Tony Weremeichik of Canin Associates, an architecture firm in Orlando. 'Consider designing outdoor spaces as if they were living rooms.'" For complexes (in the city or out) features that encourage out-of-the-house gatherings are highly desirable, like "a rooftop swimming pool that they share with the building's other tenants."

Places to congregate are more important than a big apartment: community rooms, fitness areas, movie-screening theaters, anything shared that makes a complex more like a community. This desire applies obviously to renters too: in picking and paying for an apartment complex, Gen Y renters will pay more for these amenities.

Think lots of amenities with little tiny units-- and a lot of them to keep (fees) down.....The things these places are doing is constantly coordinating activities. The residents get to know each other and it makes for a much livelier and friendlier environment.

2. Rethinking Indoor Space

-Smaller rooms

-Fewer "cavernous hallways to get everywhere"

-Bigger shower stalls instead of tubs

-Big living room space for home theater type set-up as TV, movies, and video games are part of daily life now. Gen Y wants "space to eat meals while glued to the tube, because dinner parties and families gathered around the table are so last-Gen."

-No kids, but lots of dogs, so can we get a laundry room nook for a dog bed?

Is this trend turning up in San Francisco?

This kind of pickiness doesn't always fly in a place like San Francisco. For although walk-ability and good access to public transportation are important to many buyers here-- and not just because having a car in this city is a liability-- holding out for great outdoor space isn't realistic. Plus, most often San Francisco homes come in older buildings that exhibit stately, traditional formality. And many home buyers here relish that history. As local Realtor Luba Muzichencko puts it,

My buyers love soaker tubs, fireplaces, want to walk everywhere but still want parking, and love gardens. You might find some gen y-ers that are looking for the small condo with a building full of amenities, typically young professional that make lots of money but would rather spend on it City living, but frankly, those seem to be the single folks. Granted, gen y-ers are getting married (or partnered) later in life, but once they are ready to settle down and their biological clocks start ticking, room for dinner parties, bathtubs for the kids, locations that may give them a better shot at getting their kids into good schools and yards (for many, to grow their own gardens, though for Fido or the kids is a common request too) become quite the priority.

So yes, we have our share of condo and apartment complexes, many offering the same features you've read about here: rooftop pools and fitness centers...but those units aren't often the choice of families, or couples who want to make families eventually. Another local Realtor, Alex Clark, says:

Yes, the suburbs have a long way to go, but the fact is, as soon as these "kids" get out of the post college honeymoon, real life kicks them in the butt, they get married, have kids and a dog (or heaven forbid an outdoor cat), and they realize the treadmill doesn't provide the same fresh air satisfaction of running outdoors, they'll think twice about their choice of high rise living. They're going to want space. Maybe not McMansion space, but space.

That said, I think it's fantastic there is movement away from large, obnoxious homes, into places suited for actual living, and the fact (you sitting down?) walking and public transportation of all things are getting the nod over the super-sized Hummer of yesteryear is the best thing that could happen to this country since independence (although Starbucks just introduced the "Trente"to go and turn downsizing on its head).

Agreed, even in the move toward smaller spaces, for both economic and ecological reasons, people want some space. But can they afford that in San Francisco? Because more than a rooftop pool or easy walking, space is the dearest commodity of all in a 7X7 city. Perhaps most prohibitive of all, very few such units are less than $500K. Muzichenko admits this: "I guess I should add that straight out of college, it's fair to say that no one can afford any home in San Francisco."

Out of the city, these new ideas about what makes a home can come back into play. Does a suburb have to be rows of Poltergeist-style conformity, carbon-copy "neighborhoods" and strip malls separated by miles and miles of sprawling asphalt? If outdoor gathering space, easy walking distances, great livable rooms and affordability are your style, where should you be looking?

Posted By: Anna Marie Hibble (Email) | January 18 2011 at 09:30 AM