Walkable cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale have become all the rage now that the housing recovery has taken hold. The demand for downtown living has increased dramatically, as evidenced by the number of cranes dotting the Miami skyline and record condo sales. And although those sales are driven almost entirely by foreign investment, that does not mean that those buyers do not like the convenience of downtown living.

On the contrary, locals and foreigners alike agree that downtown living is so much more suitable to their lifestyle now than ever before.

Instant Access

Eileen Blass of USA Today stated that “Today’s youngest workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives.” Those buyers are known as Millennials or Generation Y, and they are very tech-savvy shoppers when it comes to homebuying. They believe that a community’s profile has to fit their lifestyle, rather than vice versa, including quick and easy access to restaurants and bars, shopping, sports, parks and recreation, beaches and easy freeway access. Those qualities are absolutely essential  to  Millenials who work at home, and even to foreigners who stay at their condo for a short time out of the year.

Evidence of downtown Miami’s popularity can be summed up like this: the city has taken the initiative of setting up bicycle rental stations throughout the city where one can rent a bike on one street and return it to another. This never would have worked prior to the 1990s. Today the streets are teeming with people walking, running, bike or skateboard riding and walking their dogs. Lincoln Road is famous for this, so much so that retailers in the area set out water bowls for the dogs along the store’s entrances.

I even remember watching the movie “Scarface” in the early 1980s when Al Pacino shot a nasty drug dealer in the middle of a Miami Beach street and there was nobody around to see it. Sure, it was a movie, but back then Miami Beach really was like that. Millennials, though, began moving in around 1982, so this same street today has an entirely different look.

Learning the Essentials

Generation X still believes in the suburbs, but those homeowners are getting older. Therefore, learning the habits of Generation Y is essential to every Realtor who has to make the transition between the two. Selling condos or homes to today’s Generation Y buyers takes a great deal of knowledge not just of the area you are covering, but of the technical advancements of buyers today. They want your help, to be sure, but they also do their homework prior to setting out on their homebuying mission. It would behoove you to get a grip on the ever-strengthening downtown residential market and cater to those people, and to learn the essentials of what a Millennial homebuyer wants.

The local yuppie office employee wants to be able to work or ride his bike to work, and then take a stroll down the street to his neighborhood bar afterwards. The foreign homeowner wants to be able to walk to the beach nearby and then stop at a café for a cup of espresso on the way home. Either way, their needs and wants almost mirror each other. Neither wants to spend all of their money on gas driving from the suburbs just to visit the mall. That is for the Generation X society, which is much older and probably closer to retirement.

Urban Real Estate – Here to Stay

Getting a foothold on those Millennial buyers takes an understanding of the following facts: first, 76 percent of Millennials view homeownership as part of the American dream; second, 92 percent say that homeownership gives them a sense of pride; third, 80 percent have a more favorable perception of the real estate market; and lastly, but even more importantly, 63 percent agree that having a good real estate agent helps them in making the right choices about a home and a community.

Accept the fact that downtown real estate investing is here to stay, and delve into it headfirst by keeping an open mind to all of the new development. Builders do not build for the hell of it. They build because there is a demand.

Downtown Miami and Fort Lauderdale have all of the attributes of what a Millennial homebuyer is looking for, and they are screaming for your help – and finding them is easier than you think. Because they are all technologically advanced in the use of social media, that is where you should be starting and communicating. Once the appointment is set for the showing of downtown property, just a single stroll down Flagler Street or Alton Road is enough to convince even the most stubborn of buyers that downtown living is where they should truly invest their money.

Morris Massre is a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty. He can be contacted at:
Phone: 954-214-6014
Email: agentsunstate@gmail.com
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