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The Most Popular Locales for Gen Xers

Millennials are the largest generational group of homebuyers in America, and the number of studies on that demographic's dwelling, migration, and buying habits abound, but what about the second-largest—many of whose members are hitting peak earning years—Generation X?

LendingTree researchers found that Americans born between 1965 and 1980 made up more than a quarter of potential homebuyers in almost all the country’s largest metropolitan areas. They analyzed mortgage purchase requests through 2020 to rank popular places for GenXers.

The study discovered that the top three locales for home-seeking GenXers include Memphis, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia. In Memphis, 33.42% of purchase requests were from GenXers. (The percentages for Jacksonville and Atlanta are, respectively, 32.02% and 33.42%.

Gen Xers made just 22.66% of the purchase requests in Salt Lake, 24.46% in Denver, and 25.39% in Minneapolis, making those the least popular places for GenX home shoppers.

The study also found that Gen X homebuyers in Tampa, Florida, Las Vegas, and Phoenix are the oldest, and those in San Jose, California; San Francisco; and Austin, Texas are the youngest. Potential Gen X homebuyers in San Francisco, San Jose, and New York had the highest average credit scores. The average credit score for these three metros is 705, which makes sense given how expensive and competitive these metros are. By comparison, the average credit score for Gen X homebuyers across the 50 largest metros is 661.

LendingTree's Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze advises GenX home shoppers to shop around before choosing a mortgage.

"Different lenders can offer different mortgage rates to borrowers with the same financial profiles," Kapfidze said. "As a result, the first lender you go to might not be giving you your best loan terms. By shopping around for a mortgage, you could potentially lower your monthly payments and save thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your loan."

The full report with rankings of 50 states is available on LendingTree.com.

About Author: Christina Hughes Babb

Christina Hughes Babb is a reporter for DS News and MReport. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, she has been a reporter, editor, and publisher in the Dallas area for more than 15 years. During her 10 years at Advocate Media/Dallas Magazine, she published thousands of articles covering local politics, real estate, development, crime, the arts, entertainment, and human interest, among other topics. She has won two national Mayborn School of Journalism Ten Spurs awards for nonfiction, and has penned pieces for Texas Monthly, Salon.com, Dallas Observer, Edible, and the Dallas Morning news, among others. Contact Christina at [email protected].
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