Are Millenials an Untapped Detroit Home Buyer Market?

[Bham1982]

This is just based on my anecdotes, but it may be that millennial preferences are kind of bimodal, and are both helping sprawl and urban revitalization.

Millennials, in my experience, tend to want interesting communities and the like, but they also want low maintenance lifestyles. Certainly the first preference benefits urban communities, but the second benefits exurban communities.

I know, my second point sounds strange, but hear me out. Brand new construction is actually relatively low maintenance compared to buying an existing home. There's a huge time/aggravation savings for the first 20 years of a house, which is about the time most couples need for getting the kiddies through school. By the time the house becomes an endless project, it's time to sell. And new homes tend to have smaller, lower maintenance yards than existing homes.

So it may be that millennial preferences are good for Midtown Detroit, good for Macomb Township, but bad for Livonia, Sterling Heights, and the like.

[mwilbert]

This is just based on my anecdotes, but it may be that millennial preferences are kind of bimodal, and are both helping sprawl and urban revitalization.

Millennials, in my experience, tend to want interesting communities and the like, but they also want low maintenance lifestyles. Certainly the first preference benefits urban communities, but the second benefits exurban communities.

I know, my second point sounds strange, but hear me out. Brand new construction is actually relatively low maintenance compared to buying an existing home. There's a huge time/aggravation savings for the first 20 years of a house, which is about the time most couples need for getting the kiddies through school. By the time the house becomes an endless project, it's time to sell. And new homes tend to have smaller, lower maintenance yards than existing homes.

So it may be that millennial preferences are good for Midtown Detroit, good for Macomb Township, but bad for Livonia, Sterling Heights, and the like.

Maybe. I agree about the low-maintenance part, but newer houses still have a lot of work associated with them--yards and large interior spaces to maintain, if nothing else. And you get to live in something completely uninteresting. It looks to me as if condos and apartments are the main growth area relative to the last couple of generations.