Many Millennials are Waiting to Buy as they Wait for Stability

According to Josh Boak from The Seattle Times, "More millennials stuck renting for years before buying home." The reason? Boak cites student debt and job security as the two largest renter motivations, describing that recent data released from Zillow indicates that "the typical first-timer now rents for six years before buying, up from 2.6 years in the early 1970s."

Further, "the median first-time buyer age is 33 - in the upper range of the millennial generation, which roughly spans ages 18 to 34," which indicates that as millennials grow further into adulthood, these numbers are likely to increase significantly. Especially because it isn't that millennials aren't interested in purchasing, its that, as the article describes, they're waiting until they start families before seriously considering a home purchase. 

Boak also says that "most first-timers still depend on personal savings for at least some of their down payments. But rising rental prices have complicated the task of socking away money for a down payment. Fueled by a surge of renters across all age ranges, rental prices nationally have grown at roughly twice the pace of average hourly wage growth, which was a paltry 2.1 percent over the past year." This means that saving up for a down payment and finding alternative resources through special loan programs or family assistance, is an increasingly important aspect when deciding to move from renting to buying.