Gen-X Looks To Buy Their Own Homes.

Despite their slacker image in popular culture, Gen-Xers are becoming a major force in the home-buying realm.

"They're a big population with a lot of money," said Laurie Cohn, an agent at Fred Sands Realtors in Studio City.

Gen-Xers -- people between the ages of 24 and 35 -- comprise about 17 percent of the population. That's 1.5 million people in L.A. County, or more than 600,000 households. And because they have come of age during a time of great prosperity, they control an unusual amount of buying power at such a young age.

About 92 percent of people in the age group say they want to realize the traditional American Dream of owning a home, according to surveys assembled by the Concord Group, a real estate advisory firm. About 36.5 percent of that population already owns a home.

But Gen-Xers don't want just any old house. The Concord Group's research and anecdotal observations from local real estate agents suggest Gen-Xers are turned off by cookie-cutter tract housing, gravitating instead to dwellings and neighborhoods with character and distinctive architecture.

"Generation X is beginning to transform the homebuyer landscape. They're demanding a lot more individuality," said Emma Tyaransen, a Gen-Xer herself and market strategist with the Concord Group. "Everyone caters to the baby boomers, and Generation X tends to be overlooked."

No plain-vanilla boxes

California has the highest percentage of Gen-Xers in the country, at more than 19 percent, so homebuilders here are starting to take notice, Tyaransen said.

"They have to really look at what Gen-X wants and not offer boxes with minimal architecture," she said. "Builders can jazz up box homes and make each one look different and not like each other."

While baby boomers tend to think their homes should express their success, the younger generation believes homes should express their individuality, Tyaransen said. It's a "retro-eclectic-chic" look that includes front porches and balconies -- sort of the bricks-and-mortar equivalent of the PT Cruiser or Volkswagen Beetle.

"It's taking what we had before and mixing it in a new way," Tyaransen said. "With the Internet, they are used to seeing a lot of choice."

Newhall Land & Farming Co., which is planning to build 21,000 more homes in North L.A. County, has seen increasing interest from younger buyers, said spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer. In response, the company is emphasizing technology. It entered into an alliance with SBC Communications "to make sure new homes are fully wired to access to the Internet," she said.

"All our new neighborhoods will open immediately accessible (to online services)," Lauffer said. "We know that's important to many homebuyers, and in particular Gen-Xers."

Though Newhall Land's planned communities tend to be comprised of exactly the kind of tract homes that turn young buyers off, the general contractors building homes at New hall Land projects are changing their approach. In large part, it's not so much that they're creating a wildly different style home, but they're marketing it to appeal to a younger crowd.

"A good floor plan's a good floor plan," said Dan Nahabedian, vice president of product development for John Laing Homes. "It's the way we market and merchandize."

To appeal to Gen-Xers, John Laing is creating more variety in home exteriors in new neighborhoods, Nahabedian said. The homebuilder is about to open two new projects in Stevenson Ranch with a variety of color schemes.

"We see that buyer looking for more individuality on the street scene," Nahabedian said. "We're trying to make neighborhoods memorable and avoid driving down the street with your garage door opener to find your house. Gen-Xers want to drive down the street and find my house."

John Laing plans to "reach out to the hip entertainment crowd" in its upcoming 230-home project in Culver City, Nahabedian said. "It'll be Gen-X City up there."

Ironically, while the aim is to allow individuality, John Laing Homes chooses all the color schemes and other exterior elements in its developments. That way, there won't be three homes in a row that all look the same, Nahabedian said.

"The buyers know when they get inside their home, they can do the customization they want. They can do the flooring and paint and countertops," Nahabedian said. "If you can give them a street scene that feels like a neighborhood, but has individuality and uniqueness, that's what they're after."

Thirty-year-old Shannon Hall-Calabria said that sentiment was partly behind her family's decision to buy a home in the Carmelita neighborhood of Valencia. The project's location near a major freeway, mall, Imax theater and new restuarants, the quality of homes and lack of Mello-Roos taxes were also big factors, she said. And with a young child, it was important for her to live in a gated community, said. Hall-Calabria, who is also a Realtor at Re/Max in Santa Clarita and deals with other Gen-X buyers.

Low tolerance for chores

"Another thing that's important is, Gen-Xers want to move into a home that's perfect," she said. "They don't want to have a bunch of weekend projects. They work hard for their money during the week and on the weekends, they want to enjoy their home and yard."

Indeed, what's driving Gen-Xers into the home-buying market is their spending power, estimated at $125 billion annually over the next decade.

"There's more younger people making more money now than ever, with all the dot-coms and young attorneys and influx of money from the Internet," said Damon Kronsberg, an agent at Coldwell Banker in Brentwood.

He noted that a lot of younger buyers are starting to understand the advantages of buying as opposed to renting -- tax benefits and price appreciation. Also, with the multifamily housing market so constrained and rents rising, a monthly mortgage often runs less than the rent for the equivalent amount of space.

Kronsberg said he's noticed more young buyers using their own money for down payments, rather than calling on their parents.

"I can't even recall the last time a parent co-signed for a loan. Also, they generally seem to be more sophisticated about the process," Kronsberg said.

Often, Gen-Xers pre-qualify themselves for a mortgage on the Internet, said Michael Dilsaver, a broker at Jim Dickson Realters, who works the area from La Canada Flintridge to Monrovia.

"If they're pre-approved, and quite often they are, they're more proactive in the process. They have more knowledge from the Net," Dilsaver said.

While plenty of Gen-Xers are moving to the suburbs, a lot of them are interested in urban areas, Tyaransen and several agents said. But that doesn't necessarily mean a fifth-floor walk-up with no yard.

"Fifty percent of these people are married and they don't want to live in downtown L.A. in a loft," Tyaransen said.

They do, however, want to be close to work and amenities that appeal to a younger set, including trendy restaurants and entertainment. That means neighborhoods referred to in the realty trade as "growth areas" that are "on an upswing."

"They're moving to Los Feliz and Silver Lake, where stuff has a lot of character," said Jason Squire, an agent at Coldwell Banker's Brentwood East office.

Studio City and Toluca Lake are also hot areas, said Fred Sands' Cohn, who has a lot of clients in the film business.

"They, more than anyone, want privacy, character and style," Cohn said.

Unfortunately, with L.A. County values recently reaching their pre-recession peak, it's a tall order to find homes with character at affordable prices. Cohn said she's been searching for a house for a young director for more than a year, with no luck.

"He has a vision of what he sees himself living in and there's not a lot out there, period," Cohn said.