Women, Hispanics, and millennials shaping the housing industry

The number of women and Hispanics buying homes increased significantly in 2018, according to a realtor.com analysis.

Completed by comparing the Social Security Administration name demographic data against deed record buying information, the analysis found that single women are one of the fastest growing demographics.

“Hispanics and millennials names overall saw a surge in home purchases last year. If these buyers can continue to break through the affordability barrier, they are likely to make up a larger share of owners than ever before and dominate the market for years to come,” Director of Economics Research at realtor.com, Javier Vivas said in a statement.

Respectively year-over-year, non-Hispanic names remained at 0.1 percent while traditional Hispanic names increased 4.1 percent and partially Hispanic names increased 3.7 percent.

According to realtor.com “26 of the top 100 fastest-growing names are of traditional Hispanic origin. Within this category, Hispanic buyer names skew slightly older than their non-Hispanic counterparts, with a median birth year of 1979 and 1982 respectively.”

Geographically, Hispanic home buyers were concentrated in the Southwest with California, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona among the top states while Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey saw an increase in domestic and international home buyers from South American and Caribbean origin.

Realtor.com’s data also showed a growth in women names on home deeds.

“First names associated with women — especially millennial women — saw a significantly faster level of home sales growth in 2018, giving us a sneak peek of homeownership trends in 2019,” Vivas said.

The top five fastest growing names on deeds in 2018 were Hannah, Austin, Alexis, Logan, and Taylor.

According to the report, “in 2018, home sales with millennial names1 increased 5.3 percent, followed by Gen X names at 0.8 percent. Names of Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) and the Silent Generation (born before 1945) fell 2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.”

The report also found that states where housing was affordable were the ones that saw the biggest growth in millennial homeowners, “confirming” that young buyers are drawn to jobs and the availability of entry-level homes.

However, Arizonans – especially millennials – are turning to rental properties.

According to the Elliott D. Pollack & Company’s Arizona Apartment Analysis, 37 percent of total households in Arizona are renter-occupied and the number of apartment permits has been steadily growing every year since 2012.

The report found that the demand for multi-housing is strong, thanks to a significant number of millennials preferring apartments for a longer period of time and Baby Boomers selling their houses and turning to rental properties.

Elliott D. Pollack & Company reports that the apartment industry generates 22,000 jobs, $699 million in wages, and $3.8 billion in economic output every year.

“We are seeing continued strength in the housing market as the job market continues to be robust,” Arizona REALTORS 2019 President Patrick Lewis said. “Buyer demand from all segments of the population are keeping inventory low and prices strong.”

The 20 fastest growing names in home sales according to realtor.com are: