Millennials continue to compete for available housing inventory, but recent data from Ellie Mae shows that millennials are attracted to more affordable real estate markets, particularly in the upper Midwest.
According to the May Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker, Hutchinson, Minn.; Wahpeton, N.D.-Minn.; Austin, Minn.; and Williston, N.D., had the highest percentages of loans being made to Millennial borrowers. Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville, Ala., rounded out the top-five markets.
“Our data show that Millennials are continuing to establish roots where housing is more affordable and there are increasingly more jobs,” says Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Ellie Mae. “While overall, less than half (48 percent) of Millennials who closed loans in May were single, in markets like Hutchinson, Minn., the majority of borrowers were single men. This suggests millennials may be embracing homeownership in these areas for reasons other than what we have historically seen, which was family formation.”
Other key findings from the May 2017 Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker include the following:
- Conventional mortgages remained the most popular with Millennial borrowers, making up 62% of all loans made to them, up from 61% in April;
- The percentage of Millennials taking out FHA loans fell another point, to 34%, continuing a one-point-per-month slide that began in March;
- FHA refinance loans took 55 days to close in May – nearly a week longer than the 49 days it took in April; and
- VA purchase loans shaved a few days off the time-to-close, falling to 42 days from 45 days on average.