administration who understood all this, who recognized her power, people like secretary of state george schulz or white house chief of staff or treasury secretary james baker, really understood that she was a very important, crucial ally to have if you were trying to get ronald reagan on board. >> her biography sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can also listen as a podcast where you get your podcasts. journal" continues. host: we are back with jessica lautz, the vice president of behavioral insights for the national association of realtors. she is with us to discuss their 2021 home buyers and sellers generational trends report. good morning. guest: good morning. thanks for having me.

host: tell us what the 2020 one home buyers and sellers generational trends report is. what is it looking for? guest: this is a massive report. it is about 150 pages. we take the data, and it is an annual survey, and it looks every year who is buying homes, why they are buying homes, their interaction with their agents, and how those demographics are changing among homebuyers and home sellers. host: tell us what you found. what is changing about homebuyers and the age of homebuyers? guest: there has been so much talk of late about millennials and how they are having a hard time buying homes, and they are. there is no inventory in this country and they are facing struggles searching for homes. what we did find is the largest generation of homebuyers today is millennials. contrary to what we think, they are out there, they are buying

homes, they are a large section of the market. that being said, their homeownership rate overall is lower than what we have seen for past generations. host: what is causing that? can you tell us more about what is going on? guest: their age spans from 22, all the way up to 40. it is the largest generation of adults we have today. they are going to act differently in the market. separate out younger millennials from all the millennials. older millennials are likely on their second home by now, likely to have a family with young kids. we look at younger millennials, they are entering homeownership with family help. they are moving from a family member's home, or they are actually getting down payments from friends or family. to really boost their ability to pay for that down payment and closing costs. host: everyone has a different

definition of what a home is. let's define for our audience what we are talking about. our talking about condos? all we talking about townhouses? we talking about single-family ranch style? what are we talking about? guest: it is the full spectrum. it has to be a primary residence. that is what we are looking at. we know the people who bought vacation homes and investment homes actually did increase in the last year. they wanted those places where they can escape and really work remotely. this report in particular is looking at primary residence buyers. a large single-family home, all the way to a tiny home, but we are looking at everything in between. host: looking at your report, it says it is the single-family homes that seem to be most popular across the spectrum. and even for millennials.

we hear a lot of talk about millennials moving back into downtown, urban cores, instead of living in the suburbs like their parents did. are they finding these single-family homes in the cities, or is that trend wrong? are they still finding the acre lots out in the suburbs? guest: it is the spectrum, but affordability is he here. especially this year when home prices have been increasing. what we see is that millennials are seeking supportability, seeking less density than we have seen in the past. udc millennials buying in cities at higher rates, but surprising is that we actually found a large share, 20%, are buying in small towns. they really are saying, you know what? where can i get more bang for my buck? where can i buy a larger house

outside of a dense area and really have a place of my own? host: which brings us to my very next question. what are the factors that millennials are looking at when they are thinking about buying homes? are they thinking about affordability? space? are they thinking about future investment possibilities? what are millennials looking at when they are looking at that first house, or even second house? guest: you have all of the keys there. affordability is key. when they purchased their home they are saying, this is a good financial investment. when we compare them to other generations, they are the most likely to say my house is a good financial investment. it could be because they are buying properties that need elbow grease, but we also see what i think is very unique to the younger millennial generation especially, is that they want to be close to friends and family. it is possible they moved out of a friend or family house.

that is a very important connection to them. it is interesting when we look at that young millennial generation and see that, because it is very similar to retirees. didn't see it among boomers, we didn't see it among gen xers, but we do see it among young millennials. they want to be close to those friends and family. host: let me remind our viewers that i want them to take part in this conversation as well. we are going to open up special lines for this conversation. if you are between ages 22 and 40, those of the millennials we are talking about right now. if you are between ages 22 and 40, we want you to call in at (202) 748-8000 two tell us about your home buying experience. if you are between ages 41 and 55, we want to know about your experience. call us at (202) 748-8001. if you are between ages 56 and

74, we want to hear your opinion. your number is (202) 748-8002. if you don't fit in any of those categories, younger than 22, older than 74, there is a line for you as well. that number is (202) 748-8003. keep in mind you can also text us at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social media. jessica, i remember when i bought my first house back in 2000, the interest rates were somewhere between 10% and 15%, but the millennials have come up in an age where the interest rates have been relatively low. how has the interest rate affected their ability to choose that first or second house? as opposed to the people who came before them? guest: the interest rate

environment right now is amazing. it really is at historic lows. we are seeing interest rates around 3%, a little more than that right now. and buyers are able to take advantage of that. it gives them more buying power. that said, we have seen this rapid price escalation, so both of those things all at once. buyers really do have to wait that -- weigh that. you have competition dry -- driving buyers in, so you have to be patient as all of these buyers have multiple bids on one home. host: one of the things we have heard from a lot of millennials is about student loan debt. how is student loan debt affecting homeownership in that age group? guest: that is huge. there is no way around saying how big student loan debt is and what a hurdle it is, saving for

that down payment, saving for closing costs, and then the buying power. we look at millennial generation, do see that younger millennials, the highest share when they enter homeownership at 43%. when we look at younger -- when we look at older millennials, it is less. whether it is older millennials or gen xers, it is very steep. that does translate into a lost amount of time that they have to pay down that student loan debt, get their debt to income ratio and check so they can work on their credit score, and then save. that is very hard. we do see that reliance on friends or family to help them. and boost their ability to enter homeownership. a lot of people can't rely on that. it is holding back buyers. host: we expect millennial buyers to be more internet-savvy.

how has millennials entering the home buying market changed the industry? guest: yeah. i think what is really interesting is when we look at all of the generations, they are all using the internet. we do see, whether it is using a mobile phone or getting your laptop, or just sitting down at your desktop computer, every buyer is taking advantage of these search tools. especially in covid, you don't necessarily want to walk into every home. want to be strategic and say, ok, let me take advantage of these virtual tools. virtual tools, videos, even doing a virtual listing. we do see that younger buyers are embracing these tools. when that hand-in-hand with the realtor. -- doing that hand-in-hand with the realtor. host: let's let some of our callers join the conversation. let's start with dd from cleveland, ohio. caller: hello.

host: go ahead, deedee. caller: i bought an income property, so that way i do have student loans, the burden of paying the mortgage is not all on me. guest: you know, that is really interesting. what we are seeing right now is that there is actually a lot of -- especially young buyers -- were pulling their incomes -- you are pooling their incomes. affordability is key. we see a lot of young adults saying, you know what? i want a two bedroom and i'm going to rent out that other bedroom. the onus is not only on me, that i can share those costs. maybe that is utility costs, but it is also that mortgage. host: jessica, who is it that actually is buying homes? is it single people? is it mary cupples?

is it multi-generational families? who is the composition of homebuyer households right now? guest: that's a great question. i guess i can say, all of the above. what we are seeing is that marriage rates have dropped. we used to see that back in the 1960's that more than 70% of american adults were married. today just half of american adults are married. we see unique compositions of people who are buying homes today. it has changed over time. we are seeing this nadir of marriage rates. just over half of home buyers are married. we see a large share of single females. they have been second only to married couples. we also see a very large growth in multigenerational buyers. one in the six buyers. maybe they have an older parent, but we see contributions contributing to that mortgage

payment. host: when you say multigenerational buyers, are you talking about parents and children with their name on the mortgage or just living in the same house? guest: we are collecting it as living in the same house, but i suspect there are people who are saying, this allows me to buy a bigger home. when we ask the question, are you buying a multigenerational home, what we see is half of purchasing for older adult relatives to live there, especially during covid. people wanted to protect their family members from nursing homes. they brought them into their home themselves. we did also see a third of multigenerational buyers are saying, i want a larger home. this will allow me cost savings. i suspect in that situation we do have those names on the mortgage as well. young adult homes, we saw

massive growth in that. we saw post secondary colleges change. all of those makes of generations could actually all be in one household together. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to scott, who was calling from maryland. scott, good morning. caller: hi. i've been in my house for about two years now. it is my first home. one message i want to tell a lot of young people is, make sure you invest early and often. one thing i did was roth iras. you can put money in it, it can grow, and you can take $10,000 of the capital gains and use that towards the closing costs of your primary home. i think the clock on that is about five years, so you can

keep doing it throughout your life without having to pay taxes on those gains. guest: yeah. i would say there is so many unique programs that are available locally too. he is calling from maryland, and looking at the programs in maryland, there is one that works with you on your student loan debt and helps you enter homeownership. illinois has a similar program. one of the things i think people don't know about our state of local programs -- and i encourage people to research and see what is available in their local area, because they might be able to open -- able to enter homeownership with these programs. host: let's talk to mike, who was calling from montgomery, alabama. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i would like to just bring a historical perspective. i have been on this earth 68 years. one of my favorite sayings i learned back in college was from

john calvin, who said that hard work breeds success. i think that is true in my fortunate life. in 1978, when i got married, my wife and i did not want to pay rent and throw money out the window, so we bought a starter condominium in connecticut. things got better as careers progressed, and the kids came along. we bought a front-hall colonial in a better community. things got better where i was able to get a relocation package for my employer and moved from connecticut to alabama, where, of course, the housing is less prohibitive where i was before and was able to buy a 3000 square-foot rick home in montgomery -- brick home in uncle marie, alabama. -- montgomery, alabama.

i guess all of your colors and your guests, if you have a strategy and look at the economics can be cognizant of the housing market, you should be ok. i think i am probably two years from retirement. my wife and i will probably look at our last, final destination for a home. hopefully it will be a good one. a smaller one, and that is our next, probably our last purchase. so, real estate, i guess has been something that was to our advantage. i just wanted to do that, the xers, if they are planning a career, be cognizant of the real estate market. guest: i love that story. i think it is a positive story of homeownership. what we do see and what the federal reserve reports -- and i think what his experience was --

is that he earned equity in the all of his homes and was able to purchase larger homes along the way as his family grew and as his job relocated. we do see the federal reserve reporting that homeowners have, more than $255,000 compared to renters at just $6,000. i think it really is encouraging, and that was a very positive story about the joys of homeownership and that people want to buy, because they want to place of their own. host: one of our social media followers has a question we touched on earlier. i wanted to go back and give us more information. how many of the new homebuyers are moving away from the largest cities to the rural areas nearby because of covid and the rising costs? where is the location of these new homes that millennials and others are buying? guest: that is a great question. i will say that about a year ago

what we did see is that people said, you know what? i need less density, i have to move away from the city center. i see these walls collapsing ramping. but we did see is a lot of trade. i will say the daily -- the data is self-reported. people say i'm moving to the suburbs, i'm making that trade. you don't know if those are inner suburbs, but it is the suburbs. what we were able to do recently is dig into big cities for millennials. ogden, utah, surprisingly one of them. we do see places that are more affordable, or close to friends and family, could be where people grew up. and maybe they moved to a big metro area and said, you know what? my friends and family have the support system around me. i have some kids. i have these older adult relatives around me. we did see a lot of moves longer

distances as people say i have to get out of the city center, i have the flexibility, so we did see these moves. host: millennials did not -- were not old enough to recognize all of this when it was going on, but we all remember when the housing bubble first a decade or so ago. go ahead. i appreciate you knowing what i was about to ask. guest: i will say that while millennials may not have experienced this themselves, there is definitely a hangover effect from that recession. we have done focus groups with young adults, especially those with student loan debt. they were wary and said, my parents went through this, so i want to be wary moving into homeownership. i want to be a homeowner, i think it is a good financial investment, but they are actually saying when they purchased a home, i want to live

here for a longer period of time. for entry-level buyers they expected to live there for five years. it has doubled to 10. they are not saying this is my entry-level home, i'm going to move. they are actually saying, this is a home where i'm going to live for a while or grow into it. maybe i will take in a renter and expand and have a family later. they are staying a longer ring -- longer period of time. host: olympia, washington. rachel, good morning. rachel, are you there? caller: i'm there. can you hear me? host: yes we can. go ahead, rachel. caller: i've been living in the same house for 20 years. i pay the mortgage. his name is on the deed. i'm a little bit frustrated. i have a daughter who lives in oregon and she has been wanting to buy a house. she is still living, so i don't

know what she could try to do to get out of her situation, but i'm praying and hoping she can. host: go ahead and respond there, jessica. guest: i think it is really hard right now for renters to be able to find a property. i'm not sure if rachel's daughter is a saving for that down payment or in that home search process, but inventory is very tight. especially looking at the pacific northwest. we know there is a lot of competitions for home right now. people are trying to find that perfect property. is she saving for a down payment? i would say look at those state local programs, see if there is anything she qualifies for, and stay on track. it does take time. especially right now. host: let's talk to homer, who is calling from shreveport, louisiana. good morning. caller: yes, i was more or less wanting to make a statement

about my fortunes on a house. my first house i bought in houston, texas was a v.a. repossessed and it was a one dollar move in. the interest rate was just like it is about now, about 3%. i had five or six different others. i'm 79 years old. i paid $995 for a house back in 1989. i wanted to make a statement. thank you. guest: that is a really interesting topic, talking about those interest rates. but we have seen and when we look at first-time homebuyers, what we see is that right now they are at about a 33-year low. we know that first-time homebuyers are having struggles entering the market. student loan debt is one of the things we touched on, inventory.

when we look back to the 1980's, that is when the first-time homebuyers were actually the smallest share. that was due to interest rates at that time period. it is a very interesting environment when we compare 1989 to today. host: we talk a lot about the age of the homebuyers. what is the age of the home sellers? who is out there selling their houses? guest: well, i think i'm going to start generational warfare when i say this, but the sellers are actually boomers. we do see that boomers are holding onto those homes. they have that housing wealth. they have build equity -- quite a bit of equity in the last couple of years as we see this inventory crunch. they are holding onto the cart right now, because they are holding onto those homes and they are the sellers. host: let's talk to anthony, who was calling from fort covington,

new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that me and my fiance, just bought a house three years ago. we have a two-month-old. i've got to say, it is affordability. definitely affordability. get the insurance, the whole nine. i used to rent for years. we in my fiance. my fiance has never rented in her life. basically she asked me, rent or buy? i said, buy. i would rather put my money into something we are using instead of a landlord's pockets. here it is expensive for renting , when you can actually save your money and buy a house and it is a lot guest: cheaper. we do see consistently in the data that when we look at buyers

the number one reason to buy a home is that they just want to own a place of their own. it is the american dream, and we see that consistently. but also, just building that equity is huge. people want to be able to really build that. we are bad savers in the u.s.. our homes are where we hold our wealth. we see consistently that people say, my home is a good financial investment. host: let's talk to linda, who is calling from st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i must be on the wrong line. i'm 60 years old. when i was calling about is, how do they get away with a 30-your mortgage and a 15-year mortgage? at the time i bought my home could've bought a car for that, you only paid for the car for five or six years. how do you get away with that? guest: this 30 year mortgage product is something that has

been very consistent. do see it is the most popular mortgage people want to take on, gives them payment options and more consistency over time, and doesn't necessarily stretch. if you are going into a 15 year mortgage, perhaps you feel stretched and cannot make those payments. so you are building up equity at a faster rate as you are paying down that mortgage. we do see that 30 year fixed mortgage is one that people do feel confident in taking on. host: jessica, there is a story in the "wall street journal" that says the u.s. housing market is nearly 4 million homes short of buyer demand. one of our social media followers wants you to address the equity group bulk buyers they say are driving up prices and devastating neighborhoods across america. why do we have a housing shortage right now? guest: we do.

we absolutely have a housing shortage. last 13 years we know that homebuilding has not kept pace with the demand of homebuyers. so, as they have actually under-old, -- under-built, it is due to a number of factors. we see a shortage of materials. the pandemic has exacerbated all of these things. it is very hard to get those supplies for homes, especially as we see a remodeling boom. a lot of people want new things in their homes, so that is actually with people in that space. we did see in the new numbers that we had the highest homebuilding in 14 years. that means we made a lot more -- we need a lot more in the next three years to get up to the pace we have been missing for more than a decade now. host: let's talk to donna, who

is calling from salem, massachusetts. donna, good morning. guest: -- caller: hi, jessica. hello? guest: hi. caller: i just wanted to, because it is my lived experience, the greatest redistribution of wealth being that property is the greatest asset of people is happening through the family court. you don't know what you don't know, until you know what, until you live it. my people were honest, hard-working. they were blessed to have a -- to have acquired property. today, because of 18 years of negation, you know, it played out just how they wanted it to play out. my elderly mother, she ended up a very wealthy woman.

she owned two properties, had money in the bank. it was like oh, we can't allow that. so little by slow my family -- a decent family -- lost so much that i'm never going to recover from it. it is happening across the country. guardianship and conservatorship. they take over the rights of that person. they take over the rights, and you know what? the more horror stories i read about, a lot of these people that worked their entire life, they are left homeless. that is how little the senior citizens are cared about. host: go ahead and respond quickly there, jessica. guest: i think the last year has really placed a very heavy emphasis, and something we want

to pay attention to. it just came out, the impact of covid. do see a lot of families trying to take care of each other in this unprecedented time. it is very hard. host: we would like to thank jessica lautz, who is the demographic and behavioral insights vice president for the national association of realtors for being with us and discussing their 2021 homebuyers and sellers generational trends report.

>> watch c-span's washington journal at 7:00 a.m. sunday morning. american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and is in that tells the american story. six to go this weekend, more than 1400 trained cuban exiles launched a tirade to try to overthrow castro. cuba, bay of pigs, president kennedy's speech after the failed invasion, a, -- on the

cuban revolution through the bay of pigs invasion. in the 1960 broadcast, cuba the battle of america. exploring the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> before the senate appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.