American Dream 2.0: Home Building and Women
Is yours an industry with years of tradition, unimpeded by progress? Well, in this economy, progress in what you know about and how you serve your customers simply must take priority.
Home builders, specifically, need to consider the cultural and generational differences of today’s American Dreamer with a new level of gender intelligence. And, that intelligence should start with an understanding that home buying decisions are now more likely to be made by women.
A recent article by John McManus of Big Builder, for which I was interviewed, laid it out in these terms:
According to the National Association of Realtors, about one in five home buyers is a single woman, and about one in four single women buyers is below the age of 34. This is not a buyer to ignore. Under-34-year-old females, even in today’s dreadful new-home building market, represent a more than $10 billion market segment. As the cohort balloons and the economy improves even gradually over the next five years, the segment will likely explode.
Since home buying consumer trends tend to reflect on household goods purchasing behavior in general, it is all the more important that the progress necessary to reach this important Gen Y female be “unimpeded” for a a wide variety of industries – perhaps even yours.
The American Dream 1.0 is unrecognizable and irrelevant to the majority of twenty-first century consumers. But, today’s Gen Y female should not be unrecognizable to the brands and industries proposing to deliver the Dream in 2.0 form, no matter the industry.
As I described a woman’s thinking at the close of McManus’s article:
“In this economy, they are looking to do more with what they can actually afford—as small as that may be,” says Learned. “It’s not about showing off, but demonstrating they are wise and deliberate about their investment.”
Serving such a woman as if she were yesterday’s home buyer would be a nightmare.
