Millennials are the most likely age group to face challenges in the real estate market

Millennials, the largest group of home sellers, are the most likely to make concessions, change the date of their closing and have an offer fall through, according to the 3rd annual Zillow Group Report on Consumer Housing Trends.

The report notes that millennial are likely to make concessions even as we're experiencing record high home value growth and low inventory. Early signs of a softening market, after years of sellers having overwhelming control, signal even more seller struggles into the future.

The 2018 Zillow Group Report, the largest and most comprehensive survey of real estate consumers, reveals that sellers are finding it difficult to sell their home on the timeline their life demands and examines why Millennials (those aged 24 to 38) are the least satisfied with the process.

Millennials are more likely to be experiencing major life events such as marriage, childbirth, changing jobs or relocating for work than any older generation. For 69 percent of Millennial sellers, the expense and stress of moving, making improvements or repairs to sell, selecting an agent and uprooting their family is compounded by the pressures of buying a new home at the same time.

Millennials are also the quickest to decide to sell, making that decision an average of 3 months faster than older generations. Fifty-eight percent of them experience an offer fall through (compared with 41 percent of all sellers), and 89 percent make concessions to complete a deal, such as including appliances, lowering the price or paying some of the closing costs (compared with 83 percent of all sellers).

Perhaps then it's no surprise that that 86 percent of Millennial sellers say they would do at least one thing differently if they could start over (compared to 67 percent of all sellers), with 29 percent saying they would have listed their home at a different price. With so many moving parts and the potential for setbacks, many sellers say they wish they had started the process sooner.

"These seller challenges don't indicate we're suddenly in a buyers market – we don't expect market conditions to shift decidedly in favor of buyers until 2020 or later. But buyers certainly are starting to balk at the rapid rise in prices and home values are starting to grow at a less frenetic pace," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. "Whether this tilt in the balance is just a pause or the earliest signal of an emerging buyers market will determine the extent to which buyers and sellers and their agent-partners recalibrate their strategies to adapt. The Zillow Group Report reveals that as hectic and stressful as the process can be, most sellers still go on to buy another house, and, if past is prelude, they'll find themselves back in the market as sellers in another decade."