Why US Millennials, Baby Boomers Choose the Apartment Lifestyle

More Americans, of every age and economic bracket, are choosing to live in apartments. They love the convenient, affordable lifestyle that apartments offer much more than the burdens and expenses of home ownership. Baby boomers – typically empty-nesters – and Millennials, those between 18 and 34 years old, are two of the biggest demographic groups renting apartments now, said Angela Sweet, Director of Destination Services for CORT.

“Baby Boomers and Millennials both appreciate the benefits of living in apartments, and are choosing that as a lifestyle. People are realizing that there are pretty amazing amenities in apartments today and that they don’t have to mow their lawn and clean their gutters,” Sweet said. “When they get home from work, people want that convenience and lifestyle that apartments offer.”

Both Baby Boomers and Millennials also love how easy it is to get to all the things they love to do and to their jobs from apartments. “Both Baby Boomers and Millennials want to live in more urban areas. They want to be able to bike or walk to work, use public transportation and walk to restaurants,” Sweet said. Making the search for the perfect apartment easier, ApartmentSearch.com offer a walkability score for each apartment complex, on a scale from one to 100. “You can not only see a score, but you can see how many coffee shops, grocery stores and public transportation outlets are within a two-block area,” Sweet said. In addition, the site’s School Scoring system allows those who have children to find apartments in the best school districts.

In addition to convenience, apartments offer Baby Boomers, Millennials, and others a nicer place to live than they could often afford in a home. “Many apartments feature granite countertops, hardwood floors, and up-to-date appliances. They also have incredible amenities, such as magnificent fitness centers that are on par with gyms you would pay a membership for, beautiful pools, movie rooms, yoga rooms, cyber cafes and coffee shops in the clubhouses,” Sweet said.

Many communities also offer a variety of pet-pampering services, allowing renters to take better care of their pets. “You are seeing not just pet-friendly properties, but properties that are really catering to your pets, including dog parks, stations for washing your dog – even services that will come in and pick up your pets’ waste,” Sweet said.

More Millennials and executives are choosing to rent apartments because they can easily move across town – or the country – when they need to. “Millennials – and others who are career-minded – are choosing to rent apartments so they can move if their jobs wants to re-locate them,” Sweet said. In fact, more employers are seeing the value of moving renters and are offering more rental benefits than they have traditionally, according to Sweet.

And, thanks to CORT Destination Services’ and ApartmentSearch’s longstanding relationships with the multifamily industry, they can help the entire spectrum of budgets and criteria. “We are able to work with the renter, taking their criteria and options into account, and educate them on what is available in the market,” Sweet said. “If their budget is low, for example, we can suggest neighborhoods that are close to where they prefer that would fit their budget. Or, we can suggest an amenity they might do without to hit their budget, such as going to the community laundry room instead of having the washer/dryer in their apartment.”
—

Another money-saving benefit for Baby Boomers, Millennials and all other renters is ApartmentSearch’s reward system. It is the only national service that pays a reward to apartment renters. When you tell your new apartment community that you found them through www.ApartmentSearch.com, you can earn up to $200 in rewards. Plus, Millennials and others appreciate that they can donate their reward to charity, if they choose.