By K
ris Hudson | Wall Street Journal
One of the hottest debates among housing economists these days isn’t the trajectory of home sales, but whether millennials, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, want to remain urbanites or eventually relocate to the suburbs.
Some demographers and economists argue that the preference of millennials, also called Generation Y, for city living will remain long lasting. And surveys of these young urban residents have tended to show that they don’t mind small living quarters as long as they have access to mass transit and are close to entertainment, dining and their workplaces.
But a survey released Wednesday by the National Association of Home Builders, a trade group, suggested otherwise.
Statement by Jordan Rose, president and founder of the Rose Law Group: Generation Y may be having fewer kids later in life, but at some point, they, like generations before, desire homeownership and want to live in their own home. The difference between Generation Y and past generations is really one of timing — Gen Y makes the decision to buy a home later in life, whereas previous generations were getting married and having families earlier.
