How Sustainable is Millennial CBD Growth?

NEW YORK CITY—It’s going to happen at some point, the Millennial generation will eventually want families and settle down, presumably renouncing their live/work/play lifestyles for houses they own with picket fences and mortgages. What then of the CBD revitalization they’re so often credited as driving? For that matter, is the assumption of homeownership even accurate? The short answer is that there is no short answer. Experts we talked with say there’s more at play here than graying hair and the ability to afford a house.

Indeed. Homeownership is on the decline for Millennials, grouped in the 25- to-30-year-old category by Dallas-based Axiometrics. The firm’s senior real estate economist, KC Sanjay, tells GlobeSt.com that 12.1% of Millennials were homeowners in 2000. By 2005 that number had slipped to 11.5%, and to 9.8% five years later. The estimate for year-end 2015 is 8.5%. That includes condo ownership.