Millennials Can Afford These Markets

Redfin's latest report finds inland cities where 90 percent of its housing stock is affordable to the Millennial homebuyer. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, Ohio took the top 3 spots.

Based on the Pew Research Center definition of Millennial age range (currently 23 to 38 years old), the study shows that overall, 67.3 percent of for-sale homes were affordable for Millennials in 2018, down 3.9 percent annually. Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather says, “St. Louis, Columbus, and Pittsburgh used to have economies that relied heavily on manufacturing, and during the recession a lot of young people moved away in search of jobs. However, now these cities have more diverse economies based on education, healthcare and technology, and there are open jobs with salaries that are high relative to cost of living,” adding, “But millennials may want to move as quickly as possible because even in most inland cities the share of homes affordable to the typical millennial is shrinking as housing prices go up.”

By contrast, the 10 least affordable metro areas for millennials, who are currently between 23 and 38 years old, are all in coastal states like California, New York and Florida. In Los Angeles, which had the lowest share of homes affordable for millennials in 2018, just 18.5 percent were within reach. San Jose, San Diego and San Francisco are also among the regions with the smallest portion of affordable homes for millennials, all with less than 40 percent of homes affordable to young professionals. And in all the areas except Miami, which has remained essentially flat, the percentage of affordable homes for sale dropped from 2017 to 2018.

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