Millennials aren’t saving enough for a down payment on a home: survey

80% of millennials expressed the desire to buy a home, but 72% can't afford it

Miami and money
Miami and money

The future of homeownership for millennials doesn’t look bright.

About 70 percent of millennials have reported that they’ve saved less than $1,000 for a house down payment, a new study from Apartment List reveals.

The survey concluded that less than 30 percent of even the older crowd, between 25 and 34, would be able to save enough for a 10 percent home down payment in the next three years, and a meager 15 percent could save that much in a year’s time, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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The study, to be released Friday, also shows that 40 percent of millennials, ages 18 to 34, do not save any money on a monthly basis. Even the elder half of the spectrum, 25-34, said that they don’t save on a monthly basis. The survey results forecasted that homeownership for millennials in upcoming years will be dismal.

“It’s encouraging that millennials do want to buy homes. It suggests that they are delaying forming households but they’re not giving it up,” Andrew Woo, director of data science and growth at Apartment List, told the Wall Street Journal. “The biggest reason [they aren’t buying] is because of affordability.”

Most of the members of Generation Y that participated in the Apartment List survey expressed the desire to buy a home down the line (80 percent). Still, 72 percent of them cannot afford it.

Some said that they planned on receiving help from their more affluent baby boomer parents. About one quarter of older millennials said they expect to receive a financial boost from friends or family, the survey shows. [WSJ] –Grace Guarnieri