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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
March 2020 #12248 Page #105
Millennials Creating a Modular Housing Evolution
By Gary Fleisher
C
ontrary to what we Boomers think, Millennials are no longer children. Born between 1981 and 1996, they are in their twenties, or even late thirties, and already entering the single family home market.
Millennials will outnumber Baby Boomers in 2020 and they’re a market segment the modular home industry can no longer ignore. The modular home industry, stagnant for decades, is once again seeing an evolution in what the customer wants (Millennials) and is working hard to meet their needs. It’s not easy to evolve into something new, but it must happen. Notice I didn’t say “innovation” or “disruption.” Both of those terms are integral parts of the housing evolution, but neither on their own bring lasting change. Even though 90% of Millennials want to buy a single family home, fewer than 5% say they can do it this year, even though the vast majority see owning a home as being more affordable than renting. Of those who want to purchase a home, 72% said they couldn’t afford it, with 62% saying they specifically lacked a down payment, typically calculated at 20% of a home’s purchase price. It’s no secret that, compared to previous generations, Millennials are late to the home buying game. Boomers can’t understand why their children aren’t buying new homes like they did when they were in their thirties. The answer is simply that buying a home in the 1970s was a lot easier than it is today. When Boomers were in their thirties, they bought homes entirely differently than today. They found their realtors through personal referrals, the Yellow Pages, or by simply walking into an open house. But Millennials are both captive to and captivated by technology, which has found its way into the home buying process. Of older Millennials, 81% have found their home through a mobile app. Given this, the modular housing industry, including everyone from the factory to the builder, needs to learn that leveraging technology will be necessary to capture the generation hooked on apps.
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