What’s the Connection Between Names and Home Sales?

As millennials take over the market, a recent study dives into who exactly these millennial buyers are. Realtor.com also analyzed which demographics outside of millennials have experienced significant increases in homeownership. The report revealed that home sales associated with female buyer names increased while sales with male names declined, up 1.6 percent and down 0.1 percent year-over-year on average respectively.

The study looked in depth at names and found that millennials with the names Hannah, Austin, Alexis, Logan, and Taylor were the top five names with the fastest levels of sales growth in 2018. However, volume wise, these names are still dwarfed by others, but as the trend continues, we can expect names them to expand their homeownership footprint in 2019 and beyond.

According to the study from Realtor.com, women and hispanics have seen increases in sales recently. The study notes that single women are one of the fastest growing demographics in the housing market, and the National Association of Realtors estimates 18 percent of home purchases will come from single women households, more than double the share of single men at just 7 percent. Many of these women buyers are baby boomer and silent generation women.

Realtor.com also notes that hispanic homebuyers are the only demographic to have increased their rate of homeownership for the last three consecutive years, according to the latest 2017 Hispanic Wealth Report. By name, 40 percent of properties registered under a Hispanic buyer name is also under a single name, compared to 46 percent in the broader sample.

Younger buyers have been moving up in the past year. In 2018, sales with Millennial and Generation X names increased 5.3 and 0.8 percent year-over-year on average respectively, while sales with Boomer and Silent generation names decreased 2.0 and 3.5 percent year-over-year on average respectively. While volume wise these younger millennials still trail their older millennial counterparts like Ryan, Joshua, and Justin, their role in home purchases is expanding quickly.

Find the full report from here.