Get Ready for Zoomer Home Buyers

Just when you’ve figured out how to deal with millennial homebuyers, you need to be prepared for the next generation, the Zoomers, who are coming along fast and furiously.

The generational shifts so far in American homebuyers have presented huge challenges for the housing and construction sectors but they may be nothing compared to what’s coming as Gen Z, whose members are increasingly better known as Zoomers, start to enter their home-buying years.

A new study from Redfin, the national real estate brokerage company, reports that by the end of last year, 30% of 25-year-olds owned their own homes, compared to the 27% rate of Gen Xers and 28% of millennials when they were the same age. Rocket Mortgage goes further, reporting that 71.5% of Zoomers plan to buy their first home in the next one to six years, with 37.2% as soon as one to three years.

The Retail Brew website, which reported these statistics, says this means companies that serve the housing market will need to adjust their marketing, product assortments, and just about everything else to focus on Gen Z, which has decidedly different purchasing characteristics than their predecessors.

Over the remainder of this decade, “home improvement and home-furnishing retailers will need to prepare to cater to Zoomers, who value sustainably sourced products that are personalized and don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of convenience,” the site reported.

One important factor driving this next generation’s buying habits is that for many members, they’ve spent much or sometimes all of their careers working from home. This pushes them to place more value on the quality of both the building materials and the furniture they buy since they spend more time at home and less – or none at all – in an office setting.

And while Zoomers are growing in their role in spending, the good news for those who will be selling to them is that they do remain far behind millennials in their role in the economy. But they are catching up fast.

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