Sable Homes’ Karin Kay Sought by Fox17 on West Michigan’s Suburban Millennial Housing Boom

Karin Kay, sales manager at Sable Homes, talked with Fox17 about the suburban millennial housing boom in Grand Rapids during a live video conference interview on Saturday, June 6.

Data from the National Association of Home Builders shows sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 0.6 percent nationwide in April 2020, and National Association of Realtors found that 5 percent of members said the coronavirus pandemic was causing their clients to shift their sights to the suburbs.

In late May, Improvenet.com, an online resource for homeowners, cited Grand Rapids as the second-highest market for millennials with 19.5 percent of homes owned by those between the millennial age group (26-40 years old). Grand Rapids was also found to be the seventh city having the most single millennial homeowners with 3.8 percent.

Sable Homes, West Michigan region’s third largest home builder, shows the local home purchasing market is in line with these national and demographic home-buying trends. Even as COVID-19 hit West Michigan in late February/early March, several of Sable Home’s 42 home purchases were by millennials

“At Sable, we pride ourselves on giving you the best bang for your buck for your house. So we tend to have a lower price point than our competitors, which works out great, especially for those who may be first-time buyers,” Kay said during the live interview. “We are seeing that a lot of millennials are looking to new construction. They like the idea of not having to fix things up, not completely renovate a house and purchase a house still at a reasonable price point. We are able to provide that to them and they seem to just be loving it.”

Kay noted the Rockford-based builder has also seen a continuing trend among new home buyers wanting to build in Grand Rapids suburban “hot spots,” including Country Meadows in Sparta, Genevieve Plat in Sand Lake, as well as neighborhoods in Byron Center, Newaygo, Caledonia and Cedar Springs.

For millennial home buyers looking to purchase a home within a 15-minute radius of Grand Rapids’ city center, Kay recommends broadening your search by five minutes outside of the city.

“Sometimes that can completely open up your options of pricing and housing,” she said. “Those millennials who started out thinking they wanted to be 15 minutes from Grand Rapids’ center were not finding anything in their price range in that area and have explored that little bit of extra time. Some of our most popular neighborhoods with millennials right now happen to be Sparta, Coopersville and Newaygo. That extra five minutes can go a long way.”

While the metro Grand Rapids housing market continues to boom, a housing shortage still remains.

“Obviously, we saw a little bit of a slow down because no one could look at houses – but it’s been crazy again,” Kay said, referring to Michigan’s stay-home order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “There’s a lot of people out there looking right now.”

Watch Kay’s full interview with Fox17 below: