First, it took them more time to buy a home and now that they have a place to call their own, do millennials suffer from homebuyers' remorse? According to a Bankrate.com [1] survey, nearly two-thirds of millennial homeowners have regrets about their home purchase—and most of it stems from difficulties with maintaining the home they bought.
Millennials also form the largest share of any generation who regret their home purchase. The survey which was carried out between January 30 and February 1, covered 2,668 adults across age-groups.
When looked across age-groups though, the survey found that overall 44 percent of homeowners had regrets about their home purchase while 56 percent were happy with their home. The most common factor that caused homeowners to regret their purchase was unexpected maintenance or hidden costs. While 18 percent of all respondents cited this as their key factors, a quarter of these respondents were millennial homeowners.
“Repairs and maintenance costs are something all homeowners face. Consumers should expect to set aside 1 percent of their home’s purchase price each year to keep in a savings account to cover these expenses,” said Deborah Kearns, Analyst at Bankrate.com. “Budgeting early on can prevent dipping into emergency savings or going into debt to handle these added expenses.”
Some of the other factors that made homeowners suffer from buyers remorse included, buying a house that was too small (12 percent), buying a house that was in a bad area (8 percent); making a poor investment (7 percent); having a high monthly mortgage payment (7 percent); not getting the best mortgage rate (6 percent); and buying a house that was too big (6 percent).
The survey also revealed that 79 percent of Americans believed that owning a home was "a hallmark of achieving the American dream." However, income proved to be the biggest hindrance to achieving their goal of homeownership with 51 percent of survey respondents who didn't own a home citing this as the key reason for not having their own home yet. Forty-one percent of respondents who don't own a home also said that they didn't buy because they couldn't afford a down payment and closing costs related to buying a home.
Click here [2] to read the full report.