Many housing observers agree that Generation Y—people from 18 to 34 years of age—largely prefers downtown living, often in rental apartments with easy access to walkable neighborhoods and public transportation.
The real question is whether they’ll outgrow those tastes once they earn higher salaries and have kids.
The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, the land-use association that long has championed dense development over sprawl, this week plans to release the results of a survey of generational housing preferences, highlighting those of Generation Y. The survey, to be released at ULI’s spring conference in San Diego on Wednesday, polled 1,202 U.S. adults from Jan. 16 to Feb. 3 of this year.
ULI heralds Generation Y, with nearly 80 million members, as a potential “game changer” in the U.S. real estate market (they are also known as “Millennials”). Of survey respondents in that age range, 59% said they prefer their neighborhood to have a variety of housing types; 62% favor mixed-use developments with shops, restaurants and offices; and 52% like pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.
