Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Welcome Home

Bloomberg reports Millennials are (belatedly) becoming much like their parents. As the economy improves and jobs become plentiful, they're moving out of their parents' basements and buying homes and big SUVs.
Americans aged about 18 to 34 have become the largest group of homebuyers, and almost half live in the suburbs, according to Zillow Group data. As they shop for bigger homes to accommodate growing families, they’re upsizing their vehicles to match. U.S. industry sales of large SUVs have jumped 11 percent in the first half of the year, Ford Motor Co. estimates, compared with increases of 9 percent for midsize and 4 percent for small SUVs.

Much of the generation delayed marriage, childbearing and home ownership after graduating with heaping student-loan debt and entering a weak job market. As more millennials overcome this, many want the life of their baby-boomer parents -- the kids, the house in the ’burbs and the beefy SUV.
Once again urban planners are disappointed. They hoped Millennials would remain permanently urban, permanently auto-free, addicted to apartment/loft/condo living and cafe society.

Wrong again. All it took was a robust economic upturn to turn them into Boomer-clone consumers.

The 2016 election not only represented a political shift, it was also a rejection of Obama's metrosexual way of being. Any year now, they'll be voting Republican and worrying about property values.

America welcomes you home, Millennials.