M8| Friday, March 6, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
value—are popular with young
buyers, real-estate agents say. Ev-
anston, just outside Chicago, and
closer-in areas like Winnetka and
Wilmette attract them, said Erica
Goldman, an associate broker with
Jameson Sotheby’s International
Realty. Meanwhile, younger buyers
“aren’t flocking” to Lake Forest,
she said, mentioning a farther-out
suburb that once represented the
pinnacle of suburban success but
which has been mired in a multi-
year slump. Median sales prices a
square foot illustrate the shift: Inbiage for the house they sold, she
described it as a “unicorn,” extol-
ling its location “two blocks from
the station and main street,” its
renovated, open layout and “white
kitchen with gleaming profes-
sional appliances.”
“I speak millennial,” said Ms.
Mellstrom. The home received
four offers and sold $56,000 over
the asking price at $1.355 million.
Towns like Pelham—close to
the big cities where one or both
members of a couple work and
with access to the culture theyband could take a job in Manhat-
tan, her first comment to him was,
“You can’t be too far away. You
need to be close to the family,” said
Ms. FitzSimons, a graphic designer
with three children. So the couple
bought a four-bedroom, 2,800-
square-foot house in Pelham, a 35-
minute train ride to Grand Central
Terminal in New York City. Though
they had looked for homes in ritz-
ier New York suburbs including
Rye and Larchmont, Ms. FitzSi-
mons said proximity to the city
mattered more. In May, the family
moved into another Pelham home
for $1.975 million, said Ms. FitzSi-
mons.
Holly Mellstrom, an agent with
Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s Interna-
tional Realty, said both the house
the FitzSimonses sold and the one
they bought are precisely the kind
of homes buyers under 40 want.
When she wrote the listing ver-popular area near downtown—was
puny by Texas standards, at 1,500
square feet, but sat on a generous
10,000-square-foot lot.
The couple’s response shocked
her. “They liked the house size,
but one of the drawbacks for
them was the bigger lot,” she
said, laughing in astonishment.
The couple said their kids “would
rather just go to the nearby park,
and they weren’t sure they
wanted to spend a lot of time
maintaining that much space,”
Ms. Power said.
By eschewing huge homes—even
when they can afford them—cur-
rent buyers promise to reshape a
number of suburban markets that
used to successfully offset longer
commutes with more space. Today,
close-in communities—even with
smaller homes—are big winners.
When Kimberly FitzSimons, 40,
moved from Chicago so her hus-MANSION
money to buy their dream homes.
There are 618,000 people between
the ages of 24 and 38 who have a
net worth of $1 million or more,
according to a recent report pub-
lished by WealthEngine, a data
provider, and Coldwell Banker.
For veteran real-estate agents,
many younger buyers’ definition of
a dream home runs directly counter
to what they understand about lux-
ury real estate. While real-estate
value—and appeal—has long been
predicated on square footage,
agents say this generation of young
families are unimpressed with large
homes and lots. Boulevard Realty
agent Rhonda Power, who has sold
real estate in Houston for 17 years,
had a property to show a couple in
their 30s and their two young kids.
The $600,000 house, smack in
Houston Heights—an increasingly
Continued from page M1
Urbanists
The backyard pool at
the Huelskamp home.The
Huelskamps’
home has
many of the
qualities
popular with
younger
buyers:
proximity to a
bustling town
center, a
smaller size,
and lots of
white paint.Close-in Suburbs Hot.
Far-Out Suburbs Not.
Median sales prices a square
foot are from the top 20% of es-
timated values of single-family
homes.
Kentfield, Calif., was 20% more
expensive thanMill Valley, Calif.,
in 2011. Now it’s 3.8% more ex-
pensive.
Lake Forest, Ill., was 11% more
expensive thanEvanston, Ill., in
- Now it’s 13% cheaper.
Rye, N.Y., was 41.5% more expen-
sive thanPelham, N.Y., in 2011.
Now it’s 37.4% more expensive.
Cypress, Texas, was 19% cheaper
than downtownHouston in 2011.
Now it’s 45.7% cheaper.
Greenwich, back country, Conn.,
was 14% cheaper thanGreenwich,
the town, Conn., in 2011.
Now it’s 15.3% cheaper
Source: Attom Data Solutions
LEGEND
= Traditional luxury area= Popular among under-40
buyersALANNA HALE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (5)© 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 6DJ7467Monitor
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