Apartment Living Versus Homeownership: Some Millennials Say They’ll Rent Forever

Although our culture has sort of associated buying a home with “growing up”, it isn’t necessarily the first choice of millennials, who are the up and coming generation of homeowners. Between owning a home and renting an apartment or even a house, some people say they will be lifelong renters. 

There are so many reasons someone might choose to rent instead of buying a home. For one thing, renting comes with innate flexibility. For people and professionals who travel often, renting might be a nice way of securing roots that are transferable. There are a handful of reasons people might prefer renting to buying, especially if they’re unsure about their jobs, commute, or even the location they’re currently in. If a new career opportunity arises, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to move to accept it without having to sell a home? 

Another major reason cited by life-long renters is that they’d prefer to live a maintenance-free lifestyle. Without a home, there’s no yard to mow. There is no landscaping that needs to be done. Additionally, there are no home repairs you would need to do. When the roof leaks, that’s either your landlord’s issue or a phone call to maintenance. 

In fact, one of the reasons millennials cite as one of the top reasons they don’t want to buy a home is because they don’t want to deal with the stress of homeownership. Other lifelong renters cite they don’t feel like renting is throwing money away, which is a myth worth disproving. According to one young professional, it’s not throwing money away at all, instead, it actually affords someone the chance to save money instead of funneling it into a home which may not be the best investment. 

Some millennials say they’ll rent forever, but others are looking to buy a home — just slower than other generations.