Millennials want new breed of subdivision development

Millennials could demand a new breed of subdivision development

Many young homebuyers such as millennials want more shared community areas, such as swimming pools.

Home builder Tim O’Brien recently attended a housing conference in California where the industry was trying to figure out how to attract millennial buyers.

One speaker called up a slide of a university dorm in Texas with communal pools and community areas with pool tables. It was like a resort.

O’Brien, president of Tim O’Brien Homes, Pewaukee, recalled the speaker saying “this is the future of housing.”

“It’s going to be related to more of an urban density, more social area,” O’Brien said.

(See the story in the July 4 edition of the Milwaukee Business Journal for a full rundown of how millennials are affecting bankers and builders now, and how they will affect the market once more young people start buying houses instead of renting.)

Once millennials come out in full force, it means big lawns and white picket fences may go the way of the baby boomer, and new subdivisions will need more densely packed houses with more communal areas. The challenge for builders in the future is achieving those while keeping houses affordable to millennials, O’Brien said.

“It’s just a delayed buying demographic,” he said. “I firmly believe it will be a strong demographic.”

Such communities are popping up in other areas of the country, such as around the Nike Inc. corporate campus in Oregon, O’Brien said. But the millennials are not yet a big enough segment of the market to change the building trends in the Milwaukee market. But O’Brien is experimenting with some amenities to meet the millennial wish list.

The Weyerhaven subdivison in Menomonee Falls, for example, will have a community center. O’Brien said he also is toying with the potential for community vegetable gardens.

“Are we considering it? Yes,” O’Brien said. “Are we actively investing a lot of money it in today? No.”