- A new Bankrate survey found that 64% of millennials regretted buying their current home.
- Their reasons included unexpected maintenance costs and high mortgage payments.
- The frenzied market has led many buyers to snap up homes, skipping inspections and due diligence.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Millennials who may have rushed to snap up homes during the pandemic are beginning to regret their purchases after discovering sky-high maintenance costs and a mortgage that’s too expensive.
According to a new survey from Bankrate, 64% of millennial homeowners are experiencing regret after buying their current home, mostly due to unexpected costs. Bankrate surveyed 1,425 homeowners between April 21 and April 23 and found that 41% of homeowners overall are feeling dissatisfied in at least one area.
Among homeowners between the ages of 25 and 40, their biggest regrets range from the size of the home to the location:
- 21% of millennials said the maintenance and other costs are too high
- 15% said their current home is in a bad location
- 14% said they bought a house that is too big
- 14% said they bought a house that is too small
- 13% said their mortgage payment is too high each month
- 13% said they overpaid or paid too much for their home
- 12% said they didn’t get the best mortgage rate
- 9% said they don’t think the home was a good investment
- 5% said they had other reasons for regretting their purchase
Expenses like repairing a roof or fixing appliances or heating and cooling systems seem to be tripping up millennial homebuyers the most, Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com’s senior economic analyst, said in a blog post.
“It isn’t a question whether such expenses arise, only when and how much they will cost,” he said.
Read more: Home prices are soaring across the US, but these 11 places are the wildest right now
The real-estate boom in the US is being driven by a combination of factors — primarily, low interest rates and a pandemic-induced desire for more space and distance from crowded city centers. It’s led to a chaotic market where bidding wars are the norm, prices are soaring, and inventory has hit record lows.
Real-estate agents recently told Insider that they saw the market begin to shift in the spring and summer of last year with no sign of it slowing down in 2022.
Glen Clemmons, a broker and realtor for Costello Real Estate and Investments in North Carolina, told Insider that some of his buyers have started putting offers in on “coming soon” listings, sight unseen; Nadine Pierre, a realtor with Allison James Estates & Homes in South Florida, said she’s putting listings on the market at 8 AM — by 5 PM, she’ll have 20 offers.
That frenzied market is leading hopeful buyers to skip steps they may have normally taken in order to nab a house. The Wall Street Journal’s Candace Taylor reported earlier this year that buyers had started skipping due diligence and waiving inspections, only to discover costly issues down the line like wasp infestations or destructive local woodpeckers.
Scott Trench, the CEO of the real-estate-investing resource BiggerPockets, recently told Insider that the current market should make buyers think twice about trying to purchase a house right now.
“Frantically trying to buy ‘something’ is a great way to make a bad purchase,” he said.