Gen Y Housing Preferences

[fieldafm]

In an ongoing effort to highlight what makes cities attractive for the creative class, another article of relevance for Jacksonville's leaders.

From Yahoo/Wall Street Journal

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/no-mcmansions-for-millennials.html

No McMansions for Millennials
By S. Mitra Kalita and Robbie Whelan, WSJ.com

Here's what Generation Y doesn't want: formal living rooms, soaker bathtubs, dependence on a car.

In other words, they don't want their parents' homes.

Much of this week's National Association of Home Builders conference has dwelled on the housing needs of an aging baby boomer population. But their children actually represent an even larger demographic. An estimated 80 million people comprise the category known as "Gen Y," youth born roughly between 1980 and the early 2000s. The boomers, meanwhile, boast 76 million.

Gen Y housing preferences are the subject of at least two panels at this week's convention. A key finding: They want to walk everywhere. Surveys show that 13% carpool to work, while 7% walk, said Melina Duggal, a principal with Orlando-based real estate adviser RCLCO. A whopping 88% want to be in an urban setting, but since cities themselves can be so expensive, places with shopping, dining and transit such as Bethesda and Arlington in the Washington suburbs will do just fine.

"One-third are willing to pay for the ability to walk," Ms. Duggal said. "They don't want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. ...The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y."

Outdoor space is important-but please, just a place to put the grill and have some friends over. Lawn-mowing not desired. Amenities such as fitness centers, game rooms and party rooms are important ("Is the room big enough to host a baby shower?" a millennial might think). "Outdoor fire pits," suggested Tony Weremeichik of Canin Associates, an architecture firm in Orlando. "Consider designing outdoor spaces as if they were living rooms."

Smaller rooms and fewer cavernous hallways to get everywhere, a bigger shower stall and skip the tub, he said. Oh, but don't forget space in front of the television for the Wii, and space to eat meals while glued to the tube, because dinner parties and families gathered around the table are so last-Gen. And maybe a little nook in the laundry room for Rover's bed?

In his presentation, KTGY Group residential designer David Senden showed slide after slide of dwellings that looked like a cross between a hotel lobby and the set of "Melrose Place."

He christened the subset of the generation delaying marriage and family as "dawdlers."

"A house in the suburbs is not for them," Mr. Senden said. "At least not yet."

Places to congregate are more important than a big apartment, he cautioned. He showed one layout of a studio apartment-350 square feet, as big as Mom and Dad's Great Room. Common space has migrated to "club rooms," he said, where Gen-Y residents can host meals and hang out before heading to a common movie-screening room or rooftop swimming pool that they share with the building's other tenants.

The Great Recession and its effects on young people's wages will affect how much home they can buy or rent for years to come.

"Not too many college grads can afford a lot of space in the city," he said. "Think lots of amenities with little tiny units-and a lot of them to keep (fees) down. ...The things these places are doing is constantly coordinating activities. The residents get to know each other and it makes for a much livelier and friendlier environment."

[ChriswUfGator]

Speaking personally as a gen-Y'er I think I'll keep my dining room and my bathtub, thanks very much! Those claims are just related to most not being  to the age where they entertain at home yet, once they get up towards 30 that will change. Would be nice to have the ability to get around without a car though. Wish Jacksonville would invest in some streetcars already.

[Jason]

I'd say that article is spot on.

[Captain Zissou]

Having had 4 friends move to within a quarter mile of me in the past month in riverside, I can say that this article is spot on.  For many of my other friends as well, we've all compromised square footage for the ability to walk to places.  

I don't think the 'dinner party' is dead, I just think it has evolved.  You don't need a formal area, and not everyone has to sit in a chair at the table.  Cook up a bunch of food and sit wherever you can.  

The living room/tv/gaming area is crucial, but bedrooms can be smaller.  The ability to be outdoors is huge; fire pits, corn hole, throwing the football, grilling,  etc.  Dogs are more children than pets these days, so making them sleep outside isn't an option.  I still think bathrooms are important, but you don't need a separate room for the toilet.

All in all, I think community and experience is replacing consumption, and borrowing is the new buying.  Access to a boat is just as important as owning one.  Same goes for a pool, pool table, gym, and countless other things.  So being able to have access to, even if it means sharing with 2 dozen other people, is very important.

Great article and very relevant to city leaders and future developers in Jax.

[Jason]

Imagine the "old" courthouse newly renovated into a development like mentioned in the article...

IMO, renovations/retrofits will be the best way for development like these to come to fruition cheaply in areas where the ammenities already exist.  Outside of that, smaller infill developments designed for the pedestrian will be key.

[ChriswUfGator]

You've got some valid points Zissou. But by the time you get up around 30, sitting on futons clutching paper plates has kind of lost its luster. The article tries to say purpose-dedicated living spaces are being rejected by this generation and that's a faulty conclusion in my own experience.

Square footage wise, I agree with you. This trend in the 90s and 2000s that everyone "needed" some 5k square foot mcmansion I have never really understood, and I still think it's a huge waste. The generation before our parents thought it was a waste, and we think it was a waste, there's just this period in the middle where somwhow a 1000 square foot bathroom became a "necessity." The mcmansion era is (thankfully) dead, at least for awhile.

The largest place I ever lived in is 1k square feet, and my place now isn't much bigger. I'm hardly an excessive consumer. My first brick bungalow in Jax was 980 square feet, and I thought that was big for my needs. But having the traditional dedicated spaces within a smaller space is what's going to happen.

Things change as you age, the stuff you enjoyed at 20 is different at 30. You still kind of enjoy it, but you find you enjoy having people over for dinner and being able to give them a chair and a table too. I don't think that's been generationally rejected, the writers are just catching most of the generation before they're old enough to care.

[Dog Walker]

Gee!  I thought I was OLD!  Turns out I'm really a Gen-Y.  Feel better already!  Or maybe I'm just being recycled into a younger demographic.

[Jason]

The article tries to say purpose-dedicated living spaces are being rejected by this generation and that's a faulty conclusion in my own experience.

I don't think purpose-driven spaces are being rejected, just the the traditional purposes these spaces served are changing.  For example, formal dining rooms have become dens or home offices or game rooms.  And living rooms are now centered around the television and gaming/entertainment systems instead of a fireplace or picture window.  I think the main thing that the article say is that these now defunct spaces within a residence are more appreciated when moved into public where they are shared with others, ie (group gaming rooms, theatre rooms, gathering areas, etc.)

Generation Y wants to mingle outside of their homes, where the previous generation perfers to keep to themselves most of the time.

[Captain Zissou]

But by the time you get up around 30, sitting on futons clutching paper plates has kind of lost its luster

Come on Chris, I use washable plastic plates and people just double up on the leather chair and 5 on the couch.  JK...sort of......

Typically we have 8-12 people over, but the dinner table seats 6.  If we serve family style on the table, 2 can sit at the bar, or if we're serving from the bar we put the rest on the couch/chair/ottoman over by the tv.  It's a step up from college, but I'm sure it's not on par with one of your dinner parties.  This may shock you, but I love the mess of people all over the house. It feels more like a home that way to me.

[ChriswUfGator]

You guys do have some points. Especially the gaming/entertainment thing, you're right about that for sure, a fireplace would just get in the way. I know where they would have put one if they were going to and it wou've !@#$'ed up my AV sweet spot big time. I have a fireplace mpeg I can put on if I ever feel like it. xbox > fireplace anyday

[Shwaz]

Totally agree on fireplaces... I'm not against having one but it seems in most living rooms it can make the layout a bit awkward.

TV / Entertainment centers / equipment are getting to be pretty large. I personally hate the flat screen over the fire place... but I understand the need for maximizing space when you're short on square footage.

The dining rooms in my last 3 places were a total waste of space. We bought a great bar height table and in our current place we've eaten there none times. I would imagine we'll see these 'dinning rooms' turned into something much more creative over the coming generations.

[Bativac]

I guess different strokes for different folks applies here. My wife and I are Gen-Yers and when we were shopping for homes, we had 3 requirements: it had to be at least 50 years old, it had to have a fireplace and it had to have a formal living room.

Friends of the same age also wanted fireplaces, though formal living rooms weren't as big a deal.

Chris is right: 20something Gen Yers want different things than 30something Gen Yers. When I was 21 I thought a small apartment in Downtown Portland, Maine was awesome. Who needed to cook or have "dinner parties?" Now, I'd go nuts.

I do think the trend is moving towards smaller living spaces. I don't know how many people of my age I've met who have decade-old housing development homes with huge vaulted ceilings and giant expanses of white walls they they just can't do anything with.

[BridgeTroll]

Chris is right: 20something Gen Yers want different things than 30something Gen Yers. When I was 21 I thought a small apartment in Downtown Portland, Maine was awesome. Who needed to cook or have "dinner parties?" Now, I'd go nuts.

Of course Chris is right.  The same holds true for Boomers... sharing an apartment with my friends or living in some "cool" loft was awesome when I was in my twenties.  Somehow a magical transformation occured ironically right around the time I got married and had kids.  Apartment or Condo... no way, cool loft... possible but what about the schools?  etcetcetc... priorities and needs change as we age...

I imagine things will change again as I get even older... sigh...

[Jason]

I imagine things will change again as I get even older... sigh...

Like adequate turnaround space for your hover-round and proximity to Bingo halls and pharmacies and clinics....  

[BridgeTroll]

   Time flies when your havin fun!