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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 2 4 F O C U S R E A L E S TAT E / C O N S T R U C T I O N / E N G I N E E R I N G Z homeowners bought during the pan- demic, when interest rates were lower. By contrast, many millennials were struggling to find work back in their early 20s during the Great Recession, which made it hard to afford a home. And when Gen Xers were in their early 20s, they were grappling with some of the highest mortgage rates in history — around 11% in 1989, when the oldest Gen Xers were 24. At the time the report was pub- lished in mid-January, mortgage rates had dropped to 6.8% from more than 8% in October. While mortgage rates have since edged back up to 7.56%, economic indicators including slower infla- tion in June are fueling expectations of a cut in the Federal Reserve's official short-term interest rates by September. at may bring down long-term borrowing costs for con- sumers and homebuyers. Buyer backlog While 60% of young Americans are funding down payments from their own paycheck, 39% are doing so by working a second job and 36% via a family cash gift as home prices keep rising, the Redfin survey shows. In spite of those headwinds, young professionals "seem anxious to start their lives in their very own home," observes Kennebec Savings Bank President and CEO Andrew Silsby, who bought his first home at 27. "We grow a new batch of first- home homebuyers every single year, but over the last 10 years or so more have been fine with renting, focus- ing on careers and waiting to both marry and start family," he says. "at has created a bit of a backlog of folks now looking for their first homes, and with lower levels of housing invento- ries to select from, it has created an extremely competitive market." Many of the first-time buyers, Silsby notes, "have been able to save and invest so they are more prepared to buy than their peers of 10 or 15 years ago. Having established jobs and some savings put away for a down payment makes them attractive for banks to finance this new- est crop of customers." New buyers include his daugh- ter, Abby Silsby, and her fiancé, Cliff Anderson. ey recently closed on a three-bedroom house in Portland's North Deering neighborhood for $570,000, or $25,000 below the listed price. "We didn't want to pay rent for- ever and really wanted the stabil- ity of homeownership," Abby says. "In the last two years, we've moved five times so renting always felt very temporary. We knew we wanted to be in the Portland area, and we loved the idea of a permanent move." e couple paid 11% down for their house and financed their mortgage via Kennebec Savings. penobscotgc.com GET IN TOUCH 207.236.6390 @pgcbuild 241 U.S. Route 1 Falmouth, ME 78 Crosby Street Bangor, ME B U I L D I N G T H E F O U N D A T I O N S F O R M A I N E ' S F U T U R E C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » Gen Z is the largest, the richest and the most global generation ever. Businesses need to know that Gen Z is 2 billion people strong, and meeting their needs is a must. — Wolfgang Fengler World Data Lab S O U R C E : NielsenIQ & World Data Lab, "Spend Z: A Global Report," published in June 2024. GEN Z BY THE NUMBERS Roughly speaking, demographic cohort born between 1997 to 2012 Largest generation in history and first set to reach 2 billion (25% of global population) Spending is projected to explode from $9.8 trillion today to $12.6 trillion by 2030.

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