December 16th, 2021, Frances Johnson
Challenge
Examine US Millennials’ attitudes, drivers and barriers to home ownership including affordability, COVID-19, student debt and generational differences.
Solution
Rapid insight, targeting an audience of US Millennials who don’t own a property using YouGov Surveys: Self-serve.
Results
Evidence of the scale and variety of home ownership issues US Millennials are faced with. The study was used as the foundation of a thought leadership series.
Business challenge
Legal & General, a UK-based leading financial services group, wanted to understand how young Americans are dealing with house affordability and making their way onto the housing ladder.
More specifically, to gauge attitudes to home ownership, purchase decisions and the main barriers to owning a home as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were easing in the US.
Another objective was to analyze the three distinct age categories within the Millennial generation, each with very different needs and life stage priorities.
Solution
Using YouGov Surveys: Self-serve's rapid research capabilities, Legal & General was able to run a survey targeting Millennials based in the US who don’t own a property. The survey was carried out among 875 respondents to understand their broad financial issues and attitudes around property purchase decisions.
Legal & General surveyed a group of US Millennials to understand where they live, where they want to live, how student or medical debt affects their ability to save for a deposit and finance a home, property affordability, problems building credit rating and saving for a deposit, and to what degree COVID-19 impacted their ability to own a home.
Results
The research gathered highlighted that Millennials have the lowest rate of home ownership compared to any generation before them.
• Just 43% of Millennials are currently homeowners
• Of those who don’t own a home, 48% are in the process of saving for one
• 22% are relying on a family loan, gift or inheritance to fund their down payment
Why? COVID-19 provoked the fastest-rising prices in US history with people moving out of cities, causing widespread supply and demand issues.
Millennials also identify the generation of their parents and grandparents as responsible for their housing crisis. Survey results revealed that Baby Boomers, who decide to downsize or invest in property, put a strain on the flow of available starter homes.
• 56% of Millennials claim it is hard to afford a property in their local area
• 1 in 10 Millennials abandoned their home owning plans due to COVID-19
• 30-40% of Millennials would prefer to move to a smaller place due to affordability and job opportunities as a result of COVID-19
These insights helped shape Legal & General’s business strategy, revealing the true scale of issues with home affordability across the three age groups of Millennials. The data revealed the main barriers to home ownership and how COVID-19 shifted Millennials’ perceptions about possible places to live and work.
The study was used as the foundation of a thought leadership series published by Legal & General named Millennials and Home Ownership, a Distant Dream for Most.* It discusses housing infrastructure, income, employment and generational changes in home ownership. The study was widely covered by the US national and regional press including the Associated Press, Morning News, The Post and Mail, Boston Herald, The Daily Press, Yahoo! Finance, The Statesman Examiner and The Daily Herald.
Subject to review, YouGov Surveys: Self-serve clients are not permitted to use the YouGov name when publishing survey results.
Client testimonial
“We really value YouGov Surveys: Self-serve's international reach. The team helped us to fully utilise the online analytics platform and enrich survey responses with extensive respondent data held by the tool.”
- Edyta Borowy, Group Brand Insight Manager at Legal & General