Brevard millennials among most likely in country in their age group to be homeowners
Three out of every four millennial-age households of Brevard County are made up of homeowners, rather than renters, a figure that is the third-highest among the nation's 110 largest metropolitan areas.
But that doesn't surprise 32-year-old Connor Ennis, who in April bought a home with his wife, Erin, also 32, in northwest Palm Bay, after renting a small house in West Melbourne for about five years.
Connor Ennis, who owns a video marketing services business, said he and Erin, an ambassador keeper at the Brevard Zoo, wanted to own a home, rather than continue renting, and the time was right to make the move.
"This is exactly what we wanted," he said, with expanded space in the home they now own.
Shane Burgman, an Indialantic-based real estate agent with The Burgman Group at the Carpenter/Kessel Real Estate Advisory Team at Compass, said he believes there is a greater percentage of homeowners in Brevard than in almost every other metro area in the country for several reasons.
One is the influx of space and other high-tech employees making roots in Brevard. Another is Brevard's affordability in relation to other coastal communities.
"The value is absolutely there" in Brevard, said Burgman, who represented Connor and Erin Ennis on their home purchase.
Although home prices have been steadily rising during the last few years in Brevard, they still are more affordable than in many other parts of the state and the nation.
For example, the Florida Association of Realtors reports that, during the first quarter of 2023, the median resale price of a single-family home in Brevard was $350,000, compared with a median resale price statewide of $399,900. Prices were even higher in major Florida metro areas, such as Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach ($560,000) and Orlando ($419,900).
A new report from RentCafe.com found 51.5% of millennials households ― which includes groups of people living together under one roof ― owned a home in 2022, based on data looking at owner and renter households across 260 U.S. metropolitan areas. In order to be considered a millennial-owned household, at least one of the property's owners had to be born between 1981 and 1996 ― which would mean they were 27 to 42 years old this year.
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The figure is significantly higher in Brevard, at 75.3%, which is the third-highest among the top 110 metro areas (those with populations of 500,000 or more), behind only Midland, Texas (82.0%) and Provo, Utah (76.2%).
According to RentCafe ― which is a nationwide apartment search website ― the number of millennial households that own theirhomes in the 260 metro areas jumped by 7 million over the past five years to 18.2 million in 2022. That compares with 17.2 million millennial renter households.
Despite the shift, baby boomers ― those ages 59 to 77 this year ― continue to dominate the housing market in these areas, with 32.1 million homeowner households, according to the report.
Generation Xers ― who turn 43 to 58 this year ― had 24.4 million homeowner households in their ranks.
Stephanie Moss Dandridge, a real estate adviser with One Sotheby's International Realty in Melbourne Beach, said millennials who live on the Space Coast generally "are educated, and they're looking for a lifestyle."
She said they like Brevard's location near the water and not far from major cities like Orlando and Miami ― but without the higher home prices those cities have. And they typically also like "clean, sleek, simple" designs in their homes, without the "fancy and glitzy bells and whistles."
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Moss Dandridge said millennial buyers are in some ways like their grandparents, looking to make an investment in a home with a fixed interest rate, rather than renting with the chance of large increases in rental prices.
"They're quite financially astute," Moss Dandridge said. "They don't want to take financial risks,"
At age 42, Melbourne resident Jennifer Johnson is at the upper end of the millennial generation. She and her husband, Joel, are social media app developers, and moved here from Denver with their children.
They initially rented, but after a year, they learned enough about the Space Coast and its neighborhoods to buy a house, with Moss Dandridge as their real estate agent.
"Almost everybody we know here owns a house," Jennifer Johnson said.
Johnson said she and other millennials find this area attractive as homeowners because "it offers the lifestyle of water and sun and the vacation vibe. It's a great spot, locationwise," and is not in a large metro area with high home prices.
"It feels more family-friendly and laid back," with a "cozy, small-town feel," Johnson said. "Brevard is in a sweet spot. It feels like you're on vacation."
In Melbourne, Johnson said, "you can have a pool and nice amenities in your house," without breaking the bank.
"And it's a good investment," Johnson added.
National findings
In a blog post detailing the findings of the study, Alexandra Both, a senior writer with RentCafe, said millennials "had several economic factors working to their benefit in the last few years, which helped make their picket-fence dreams come true."
Among them, millennial households' median income in 2022 of $108,000 was up 44% from 2017, which was the largest percentage increase among all generations. The figure reflects the combined income of the millennial household owners.
Generation Z (those born from 1997 to 2012) came in next, with a 33% rise in median income; followed by Gen X, up 25%; and baby boomers, up 8%.
Also, many millennials had moved back in with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic or delayed moving out entirely.
"With work-from-home supporting these decisions, many millennials saw this period as an opportunity to save for a down payment," Both said, adding that a number of millennial homebuyers also received financial support from their parents for their mortgage down payment.
Challenges related to homeownership among millennials included rising home prices, the Great Recession and student loan debt.
Among other findings Both cited:
Millennials became an "owner-majority" generation in 2022, when the average millennial was 34 years old. Gen Xers reached the milestone in 2003, at an average age of 32. Baby boomers crossed this threshold in 1987, at the average age of 33. Within the Gen Z age group, 74% still are renters, rather than homeowners.
Florida cities dominated the list of communities with the biggest percentage increase in homeownership among millennials, with four in the top 10 (North Port, Port St. Lucie, Lakeland-Winter Haven and Pensacola) and another four ranked in the No. 11 to No. 26 range (Fort Myers, Deltona, Jacksonville and Orlando). The number of millennial households that owned homes more than doubled in each of those markets.
Among the nation's 50 largest metro areas, millennial homeownership increased the most during the last five years in Richmond, Virginia (up 234.0%), followed by Las Vegas (up 157.7%), Milwaukee (up 157.4%), Portland, Oregon (up 146.0%) and Atlanta (up 128.7%). Jacksonville and Orlando also made the top 10 in this ranking.
The findings are based on data from the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation at the University of Minnesota.
Highest, lowest millennial homeownership
RentCafe created rankings based on Integrated Public Use Microdata Series data, looking at the nation’s 110 largest metropolitans.
According to the findings, communities with some of the highest shares of millennials households that own instead of rent in 2022 are:
Midland, Texas: 82.0%
Provo, Utah: 76.2%
Brevard County, Florida: 75.5%
Youngstown, Ohio: 74.0%
Des Moines, Iowa: 72.9%
Boise City, Idaho: 71.7%
Portland, Maine: 71.5%
North Port, Florida: 70.9%
Columbia, South Carolina: 68.5%
Greenville, South Carolina: 67.4%
These are the metro areas with the smallest share of millennial households that own
Salinas, California: 18.9%
San Jose, California: 23.9%
Asheville, North Carolina: 25.1%
Chattanooga, Tennessee: 28.2%
Los Angeles, California: 31.3%
Sacramento, California: 32.1%
San Diego, California: 32.4%
Durham, North Carolina: 33.1%
Urban Honolulu, Hawaii: 33.6%
New York, New York: 34.2%
USA TODAY general assignment money reporter Bailey Schulz contributed to this report.
Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Homeownership among Brevard millennials among the highest in country
