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In the early part of last year, Tar-
get CEO Brian Cornell and other top ex-
ecutives traveled to major cities across
the country to visit the homes of young,
single and urban mothers. This customer
group, said Cornell, has become as im-
portant to the retailer as minivan-driving,
soccer moms were in years past.
J.C. Penney’s, meanwhile, says
millennial moms now account for 45
percent of its revenue and are driving
much of the growth in the company’s
sales and customer count. “We want
to be able to deliver her needs both as
a woman and as a mother,” Sheeba
Philip, J.C. Penney’s vice president of
marketing strategy and communica-
tions, recently told CNBC. “That’s a
huge unmet need.”
At the same time, the 18- to 34-year-
old generation is generally known for
renting homes instead of buying and
spending on experiences over material
goods, but that likewise is starting to
change as more millennials grow up, be-
come parents and trade in happy hours
and vacations for houses and cars.
Once again, while current 18- to
34-year-olds boast the highest rate of
living with their parents since the 1940s,
surveys suggest millennials’ aspirations
to own homes are very much in line with
their parents’ and grandparents’, and the
tendency to avoid homeownership is more
about economic reality than cultural whim.
“Evidence from Fannie Mae’s Na-
tional Housing Survey suggests that
many renters aged 18 to 34 see their
current ability to own, not a lack of de-
sire to own, as the primary reason they
remain renters,” wrote Douglas Duncan
and Sarah Shahdad of Fannie Mae for
Bloomberg Briefs
.
“In fact, their desire eventually to
own their own homes is no different
from that of their parents and previous
generations,” they continued. “Most
millennial renters tell us that they think
owning makes more sense than renting
from a financial perspective: because
you’re protected against rent increases
and owning is a good investment over
the long term.”
Duncan and Shahdad also note,
that while “historically high numbers” of
young adults are living at home (about
13 percent of Americans aged 21 to
34 live as the other adult in a shared
household, per a survey done by UBS
economists), the reasons behind it are
to either keep college costs low or save
money for forming their own households.
Even so, Fannie Mae’s latest hous-
ing survey found that 96 percent of mil-
lennials are optimistic they will eventu-
ally own a home, and many millennials
seem to be actively working toward this
goal. Those surveyed most often say
that their primary reason for renting now
is to prepare financially for homeowner-
ship in the future.
And that time may be coming sooner
than later. Unemployment rates among
those between 25 and 34 years old have
plummeted the past few years, from 10
percent in January, 2010, to 4.8 percent
in November, 2016, and with it we have
seen an uptick in household formations,
shows data from the federal government.
Indeed, Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of
one of the largest homebuilders in KB
Homes, said in a recent earnings call
that first-time home buyers and young
people are beginning to enter the
market, driving demand for his busi-
ness. A recent report from strategy firm
Forrester likewise shows that in 2013,
the percentage of households owned
by someone under the age of 25 years
was at 14 percent, up from 9 percent for
the same cohort in 1973.
It should also be noted that the me-
dian age for first-time homebuyers has
remained virtually unchanged for the
past 40 years. According to data from
the National Association of Realtors,
it was 31 years old in 2015, compared
with 30.6 years old in the early 1970s.
In other words, about two-thirds of mil-
lennials haven’t yet reached that home
buying age of 31, and about a quarter
are under the age of 25 years old.
Again, this isn’t to diminish the
Average Age of Major Life Events
Source: U.S. Department of Labor & Commerce; Wells Fargo Securities
Source: OIA
PERSONS 18-34 BY RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE-
HOLD AND PRESENCE OF CHILDREN (NOVEMBER 2015)
Source: Nielson
18 19 20 21 22 23 23 25
AGE (YEARS)
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
DEPENDENT ADULTS
ON THEIR OWN
STARTING A FAMILY
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
20
60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 00 04 08 12 16
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Average Age of Major Life Events
First Marriage, Males: 2015 @ 29.2 Years
First Marriage, Females: 2015 @ 27.1 Years
First Child: 2013 @ 26.0 Years
20%
10%
0%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 66
Males
Females
Age
2015 Participation in Outdoor Activities, by Age
Percent of U.S. Adults 6+
Source: Retail Systems Research
Outdoor Participation by Age
Source: Outdoor Industry Association
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Source: OIA
20%
10%
0%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
2015 Participation in Outdoor Activities, by Age
No wireless network
available in store
Wireless available
only for receiving
and other inventory
control related tasks
Age 6-12 Age 13-17 Age 18-24 Age 25-44
Age 45+
Wireless available
throughout the store
for performance
management, POS &
product related tasks
Wireless available
for customers
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Males
Females
6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40
Age
41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-66 66+
8%
19%
25%
23%
19%
Inside
Outdoor
|
Winter
2017
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