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Even if you aren’t seeking out a move, if you’re like us, you can’t help but keep tabs on real estate sites and apps just to try and pin down some sort of trend. After all, who doesn’t love a good daydream involving a private backyard and a noticeable lack of landlord drama?
Lending Tree just released a report that shines a light on the homebuying habits they are seeing, specifically where Gen Zers are putting down roots. Using data around mortgage purchase requests, the platform was able to analyze the popularity of the 50 largest metros across the United States. Let’s start with where Gen Z isn’t settling down: Big cities along the West Coast (San Francisco, San Jose, and Las Vegas) account for the smallest rate of mortgage requests from this demographic. On the flip side, the top destination was a bit of a surprise (at first): Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Most Popular Metros for Gen Z Homebuyers
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Milwaukee, WI
- Minneapolis, MN
- Cincinnati, OH
- Indianapolis, IN
- Buffalo, NY
- Louisville, KY
- Kansas City, MO
- Columbus, OH
The city led the list by a solid margin—31.45 percent of mortgage requests for the destination were attributed to those ages 18 to 27 Lucky for those buyers, they share a home town with designer Sarah Sherman Samuel. She’s the brains behind so many cool spaces in Grand Rapids, like this charming Tudor that she renovated and eventually put on the market (the bathroom with red marble floor tile and the wavy kitchen refrigerator pulls are just two of its selling points). She’s also got a chic downtown studio that’s full of ideas we want to steal for our own spaces, like a fully tiled island and a desk wrapped in a fabric skirt.
Samuel isn’t the only one making us consider an impulse move to the Midwest. This four-bedroom home that Liz Hoekzema of KLH Custom Homes got to design twice—leaning into arches and stained wood the second go-around—is another stunner. We must say, Gen Z is on to something.