Following the 2008 financial crash, many millennials moved back home to live with their parents. But they’re finally starting to branch out on their own, and it’s starting to show: Millennials ages 36 and younger represent the nation’s largest share of home buyers at 34 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®
Saving for a down payment has proven to be a major challenge for young adults. A recent survey by TD Ameritrade found 43 percent of millennials who’ve completed college said student debt caused them to “delay buying a home.” Twenty-seven percent of those aged 20 to 26 said student loan debt delayed them from “moving out of [their] parents’ home.”
“Does it make financial sense? Absolutely,” Tony Ogorek, chief investment officer at Ogorek Wealth Management in Williamsville, N.Y., told USA Today. “It is very challenging for people starting out. Any strategy they can employ to reduce debt and allow them to save is great.”
Case in point: After 25-year-old Meagan Walsh graduated from college, she moved back home with her parents in Bethlehem, Pa. She didn’t have a job yet and faced a mound of student loan debt. She stayed with her parents for two years, saving on rent, and then was able to save enough to buy her own home.
“I was banking 75 percent to 80 percent of my paycheck,” Walsh told USA Today. She was able to more quickly save up a 20 percent down payment of $28,000 total to then purchase a four-bedroom, Cape Cod–style home last year for $140,000.
