www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/most-millennials-regret-buying-home.html
- Disclaimer: small sample size
Article hits some core tenets of personal finance when buying a house. Primarily:
1) Do not tap retirement accounts to buy a house
2) Make sure you account for all costs of home ownership, not just the up front ones
3) And this can be pretty hard, but understand what kind of house will work for you now, and in the future. Sometimes this can only come through going through the process or getting some really good advice from others.
Source of study:
Found a link to a summary of the quoted study here.
The actual finding, which the article somewhat misquotes, is
68% of Millennial homeowners have regrets about buying a home, wishing they had been more prepared going into the purchase. They cited putting more money down and better inspecting the house as steps they wish they’d taken.
The actual question:
Which of the following regrets, if any, do you have after buying your home?
And the top responses for millenials (254 respondents, since 254 of the 609 millenials surveyed were homeowners)
- I have no regrets (32%)
- Costly to maintain (20%)
- Realized there was damage after moving in (20%)
- Space doesn’t work well (19%)
- Should have put down more money from the start (19%)
- The space doesn’t work well for my family (19%)
- I feel stuck in one place (18%)
- Homeownership is too much responsibility (14%)
- I am stretched too thin financially (13%)
- My home was not a good financial investment (13%)
- I don’t like the neighborhood (11%)
- I didn’t realize building an addition would be so expensive (8%)
And the methodology, which overrepresents Californians:
Survey Methodology This survey was conducted online within the United States by Maru|Matchbox on behalf of Bank of the West between November 1st – November 10th, 2017, among its proprietary Springboard America panel.
1,014 individuals aged 21-70 completed the survey, including 240 based in California.
• 609 Millennials (Ages 21-34)
– 305 Age 21-27 Younger Millennials – 304 Age 28-34 Older Millennials• 204 Generation X (Age 35-51)
• 201 Baby Boomers (Age 52-70 )
Gender, household income, and regional data is balanced to U.S. Census with a boost to the California market.
h/t ronin722