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According to a Homes.com survey, buying a home is the most stressful life event for some. Elizabeth Keatinge has more.
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The S & P CoreLogic Case-Shiller House Price Index rose 5.8% in August, the first in 12 months when the increase fell below 6%. The reading of August is also a minimum of 20 months.(Photo: Feverpitched / iStock)

Rising mortgage rates? Higher prices?

No problem.

Millennials are getting rid of these growing barriers in the housing market and are taking more and more homes as they get better jobs and bigger hikes. They also marry and found families after repelling these upsetting events.

The homeownership rate for Americans under 35 rose from 36.8% in the third quarter to its highest level in five years, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. The share of millennial owners has increased sharply from 36.5% in the second quarter to 35.6% a year earlier. It is still below the historical average of 40% for Americans of this age.

But young adults, mostly first-time homebuyers, pushed the homeownership rate up to 64.4 percent – the highest level since 2014 – compared with 64.3 percent in the previous quarter.

Surprise

The report was somewhat surprising considering the real estate market that broke out this year as home sales dropped due to weak supply and rising mortgage rates and prices. The 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.86% last week, down from 3.94% a year ago.

But these obstacles have been offset by the improvement of the labor market. Millennials who have struggled to find a job after the 2007-2009 Great Recession are working hard for jobs that better match their skills and see their pay increases, says Ralph McLaughlin , chief economist at Veritas Urbis Economics.

"They had to make a down payment, they had to overcome bad credit," says McLaughlin. "They still want to own homes."

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And while domestic supplies are still low, they have risen steadily to reach 1.91 million in September, up from 1.86 million a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The market slowdown helps

Skylar Olsen, director of economic research for Zillow's real estate website, explains that the slowing housing market has helped millennials cope with less fierce competition while they're looking for their first home.

"They are resolutely going forward to win one of these offers," she said.

Luke Gabig, of Pittsburgh, thought that he and his fiancee, Gabi Garver, had caught the house of their dreams two years ago, but that another buyer had managed to rob her at the last minute with an offer in species. "It was annoying," said the benefits administrator, who is 26 years old.

They decided to abandon their research and continued to rent. But in August, they attended an open house on a three-bedroom ranch on the first day of marketing and immediately offered $ 10,000 more than the asking price of $ 150,000. They had it.

After graduating from university in 2012, Gabig worked in the restaurant industry because he could not land a job in his field. He finally did it in 2014 and has received healthy increases since, while Garver landed a job as a phlebotomist, a health professional who takes blood, after getting a certificate two years ago. The extra money helps the couple pay their down payment of 10% and their monthly mortgage payment of $ 1,200.

"We just got lucky," Gabig says about the purchase.

A mountain of student debt has prevented Nicholas Dwayne, 33, of Chicago, from buying a home for years. But his wife, Julie, raised substantial savings, allowing the couple to buy a $ 285,000 two-bedroom condo last year before getting married.

"Rent, it's throwing money out the windows," says Dwayne.

The skyrocketing millennium home ownership is a sign that the recent housing slowdown is likely temporary, said McLaughlin. "Because this group is so big, it can help support the US housing market indefinitely," he says.

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