Studying the 'Largest, Most Diverse, and Most Contradictory' Generation of Homebuyers

The Center for Opportunity Urbanism's new report, "The Millennial Dilemma: A Generation Searches For Home... On Their Terms", examines how millennials are affecting the housing market, including differences between younger and older millennials.

The report's authors Anne Snyder and Alicia Kurimska say, "They’re the most educated and socially conscious generation to date, and yet with the help of social media, they are being driven to unprecedented levels of anxiety and loneliness." An excerpt published in The New Geography says there are four key trends worth noting to understand millennials in the market -- their relationship to money, "hybridized" formations of households, migration to smaller, inland cities; and mobility.

Rarely has a generation spawned such a cottage industry of profiling. The largest and most diverse generation in American history, millennials are also the most contradictory, sparking endless intrigue, analysis and caricature. They’re at once idealistic and anxious, wholesome and distrustful. They consistently clamor for meaning and community while the polls show an unprecedented exile from the institutions (e.g. marriage and religion) that traditionally offered both.

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