Wisconsin REALTORS® Association: Millennials Marrying Later

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While Millennials are marrying later in life, they still aspire to marry and own homes 

Millennials Marrying Later

In 2015, the Millennial generation became the largest numerical segment of America's workforce. In 2016, they will become the largest percentage of the workforce. Although Millennials have been slow to enter the housing market, the National Association of REALTORS® indicates that 91 percent of Millennials report that they want to get married and own a home. As they do so — and many have already bought homes — they will become the largest generation of homebuyers in American history. In the first edition of the Insights report, professor Steve Malpezzi of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business provides information and insights about your future customers. 

Marital status ages 18-29

Millennials are less than half as likely as their parents to be married by age 29. While more young adults exist today — with 60 million in 2007 and now 63 million today — the number of young adult households has not budged, holding steady at about 25 million.Marital Status 18-29 Source: Pew Research Center  

 

Share of population that has yet to marry

Recent research by Richard Green and Hyojung Lee indicates that after controlling for other determinants of homeownership like income and age, the difference between married and unmarried homeownership rates averages 22 percentage points. Along with age, marriage is one of the strongest correlators of homeownership, and Millennials have not been getting married as much as previous generations so far. Even though marriage rates have declined over time, surveys suggest that marriage remains an aspiration for many Millennials. While they typically rank marriage somewhat lower in importance than previous generations, 70 percent of unmarried Millennials want to marry someday, and 74 percent of those without children want children eventually. The big question, then, is how much of this decline in marriage is a fundamental shift? Surely some of the decline is due to a fundamental shift since marriage rates have been declining steadily among several generations — and how much is a question of timing. Share of Population That Has Ever Been Married Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
 
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