Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000176-e6f7-dce8-adff-f6f770410000PublicSource is an independent, nonprofit news group that focuses on original investigative reporting about critical issues facing Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region. It was launched to undertake in-depth reporting in the public interest.PublicSource is a content partner of 90.5 WESA.More about PublicSource here.

Millennials Are Buying Homes Later, But Still Want A Place Of Their Own

Heather McCracken
/
PublicSource
Carlton J. Brown III, 29, exploring the yard of the three-bedroom, $50,000 house he is purchasing in McKees Rocks, a borough northwest of Pittsburgh.

Carlton J. Brown III is about to sign off on one of the biggest decisions of his life.

The 29-year-old is buying a three-bedroom house with a yard and a two-car garage in McKees Rocks, a borough northwest of Pittsburgh. Brown, a lab technician at an oil blending plant, has been renting with friends for the past two years.

But, “I’m getting close to 30 and I felt it was time I needed to make an actual commitment to something,” he said.

Mortgage payments on the $50,000 house will be just $150 a month more than his current $325 share of the rent.

“I was pretty nervous at first,” Brown said. “I only got this because, at the price, I was able to afford it by myself, but I’ll probably try to get a roommate so I can make it more affordable”.

Compared to his parents’ or grandparents’ generation, Brown is late to homeownership. But among his peers, he’s an early starter.

The Millennial generation — those currently aged 18 to 34 — is more than a fifth of the population in Pennsylvania, but accounts for little more than 9 percent of all homeowners. In 2013, of about 850,000 households in the state headed by Millennials, 39 percent of them owned their homes instead of renting.

Read more of this report at the website of our partner PublicSource.