Looks like Downtown Denver has more than one reason to be so popular.  A recent study reported in the Wall Street Journal took a close look at what Generation Y really wanted in their homes. Here is an excerpt from the article.

Gen Y housing preferences are the subject of at least two panels at this week’s convention. A key finding: They want to walk everywhere. Surveys show that 13% carpool to work, while 7% walk, said Melina Duggal, a principal with Orlando-based real estate adviser RCLCO. A whopping 88% want to be in an urban setting, but since cities themselves can be so expensive, places with shopping, dining and transit such as Bethesda and Arlington in the Washington suburbs will do just fine.

“One-third are willing to pay for the ability to walk,” Ms. Duggal said. “They don’t want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. …The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y.”

Outdoor space is important—but please, just a place to put the grill and have some friends over. Lawn-mowing not desired. Amenities such as fitness centers, game rooms and party rooms are important (“Is the room big enough to host a baby shower?” a millennial might think). “Outdoor fire pits,” suggested Tony Weremeichik of Canin Associates, an architecture firm in Orlando. “Consider designing outdoor spaces as if they were living rooms.”

Smaller rooms and fewer cavernous hallways to get everywhere, a bigger shower stall and skip the tub, he said. Oh, but don’t forget space in front of the television for the Wii, and space to eat meals while glued to the tube, because dinner parties and families gathered around the table are so last-Gen. And maybe a little nook in the laundry room for Rover’s bed?

In his presentation, KTGY Group residential designer David Senden showed slide after slide of dwellings that looked like a cross between a hotel lobby and the set of “Melrose Place.”

He christened the subset of the generation delaying marriage and family as “dawdlers.”

“A house in the suburbs is not for them,” Mr. Senden said. “At least not yet.”

Places to congregate are more important than a big apartment, he cautioned. He showed one layout of a studio apartment—350 square feet, as big as Mom and Dad’s Great Room. Common space has migrated to “club rooms,” he said, where Gen-Y residents can host meals and hang out before heading to a common movie-screening room or rooftop swimming pool that they share with the building’s other tenants.That sounds a lot like the great Downtown Denver condos and lofts we work with such as SPIRE, Glass House, ONE Lincoln, and of many of the new multi dwelling residences appearing in the highlands and LoHi.

It just makes sense.  These multi dwelling Downtown Denver residences offer the best of both worlds.  You get all the amenities (movie theater room, pool, sports lounge, and more) that those huge McMansions offer without the cost for all that square footage and the maintenance that goes along with it.  Plus we have repeatedly seen how important the ability to walk or bike to local restaurants, shops, and even the morning coffee can be for new homeowners.  Forget that extra bedroom that you use once a year for guests, these new high rise homes even offer guest suites that keep you visitors close... but not too close.

Learn more about why these new residences are so popular by scheduling a tour with New Era Realty today.