first time home buyers

With sales to first-time home buyers down nationwide, why is it that millennials in Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington are leading the charge back to homeownership?

According to the National Association of Realtors, first-time buyers represented just 30 percent of the existing home market in February, a figure down substantially from the traditional norm of 40 percent or so.

However, the story is very different in Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington. According to new LendingTree research, millennials in these cities represent roughly half the local market. But why three cities in the northeast? Isn’t the country migrating south?

The Census Bureau estimates that the millennial population – those 34 and under – number 83.1 million people, about a quarter of the total national population. On average, 41.4 percent of all mortgage requests through LendingTree come from applicants under 35 years old. The average age for a home buyer in that age group is 29. Their mortgage loans average $220,949 and their down payments $32,760.

“The under-35 crowd had been, for some years, hesitant to enter the housing market, but we’re seeing that start to shift,” said Doug Lebda, CEO of LendingTree. “The data all points to the fact that millennials are increasingly eager to own rather than rent, and even the incredibly high real estate prices in some markets don’t necessarily deter them.”

In fact, Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington make a lot of sense for millennials because in a knowledge economy they offer a number of attractions.