“Psychologists have found that midlife is typically a time when many of us take stock of our values and goals.
Predictable Real Estate and Consumer Trends as Generations Change Aging through Life Stages.
Part One in a 4-part Series evaluating real estate and consumer predictions as generations transition throughout successive life stages.
Fifteen years ago in 2002, as Mammoth Lakes realtor Paul Oster reminded us, Harry Dent built several real estate scenarios on shifting demographics called “Age Demographics, Buying Cycles and Real Estate Appreciation”.
And years earlier management guru Peter Drucker wrote about how dismal most predictions turn out, except for one type.
Those based on fundamental demographics.
If I remember correctly he coined the phrase “Demographic Determinism”.
Dent said as a new generation enters the workforce around age 20, we can expect commercial real estate to boom.
But, why?
The influx of new workers stimulates demand for office space and manufacturing facilities.
Since these new workers are also consumers, there is increased demand for new stores and shopping malls.
Of course Amazon, losing money quarter after quarter in 2002, had only just begun to exercise its disruptive influence over traditional retailing.
And the older Millennials coming of age in high school may have remembered a time when Amazon didn’t exist, but their younger brothers and sisters act as if they didn’t.
But as a rule of thumb, when it comes to residential housing you can identify five age-specific buying cycles.
Over the life span of a generation, spending on each category accelerates to peak at predictable age intervals.
When an entire generation goes through such predictable property spending patterns, we get a macroeconomic view of the wave-like fluctuations in real estate demand.
As a result, investors can know years and even decades in advance what kinds of properties are going to be hot and when.
For example, someone who is 52, a “youngish Baby Boomer” or “oldish Gen Xer,” and at the peak of his earnings doesn’t typically rent a one-or two-bedroom apartment for himself—though he might rent one for his 24-year old daughter.
Instead, he’s thinking about what kind of vacation home he wants or, if he’s already purchased it, how to transition to retirement in 10 years or so.
But, his daughter, just now transitioning from school-to-work, represents the median age for the Millennial generation.
In 2015 we already know her generation ranges in ages from 18 to 35.
They will be segmented into at least six life stage lifestyles.
- 20-29 Year Old Singles
- 20-44 Year Old Families
- 25-54 Year Old Singles and Families
- 30-44 Year Old Singles and Couples.
What’s their impact on apartments and retail shops?
The demand for rental apartments and retail space including shopping centers, begins to accelerate from 19 and peaks around age 26.
Here’s where the rules of thumb may need to hitch hike down the road for a few years.
Starter home purchases begins accelerating at around age 26 and reaches a peak around age 33.
Oops.
Maybe, something else is going on, as we track Millennials through time.
Part Two: Demographic Lifestyles and Buying Power
Steps:
(19) Anticipate the growing shifts in life and business. Nobody wants to swim upstream if the current is moving everything in the opposite direction. Clue your fans in.
An excerpt from Book Five in “The Knowledge Path Series” dedicated to helping you find the place of your dreams in the Sierra Mountain resorts.