About
Elevating the voice of the next generation.
Most housing research asks what young adults can afford. We ask what they believe, who they trust, and what stops them, and then we hand the industry something it can act on.
The research
This work started in 2014 as go-to-market research: figuring out why the housing and mortgage industry kept missing the generation about to become its largest customer. In 2020 it became a formal annual series, and it has run every year since.
More than 10,000 people between 18 and 44 have answered our surveys, which makes this one of the longest-running datasets on how the next generation thinks about money and homeownership. Because the questions repeat year over year, we can show what is genuinely changing rather than what merely feels new.
What we study
Affordability is the story everyone already tells. Our work sits underneath it, in the part that decides whether someone ever starts.
- The psychology of moneyHow people feel about money shapes what they do with it. We measure the feeling, not just the balance.
- DistrustSix in ten NextGen buyers expect the housing system to work against them. That expectation arrives before any professional does.
- Overwhelm63% feel overwhelmed by homebuying information, and a third avoid thinking about it at all. Not because they do not care, but because the process is paralyzing.
Our partner
National MI has funded the majority of this research since 2020. That partnership is the reason the series exists at the scale it does, and the reason every report is free to read, cite, and use. They have never asked us to soften a finding.
We also collaborate with industry organizations including the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the findings have been cited by outlets including Bankrate and the Washington Post.
The researcher
Kristin Messerli has been researching how young adults make financial decisions since 2014, first through Cultural Outreach, the go-to-market agency she founded and sold, and now through NextGen Research.
She has authored every NextGen Homebuyer Report since 2020 and presents the findings from stages across the housing and mortgage industry. She is also the executive director of FirstHome IQ, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that turns this research into free education for first-time buyers, and she holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma.
Work with us
We take on a small number of sponsored studies each year, and we speak to industry audiences about what the data says. For research partnerships, media requests, or speaking: kristin@kristinmesserli.com.
Looking for homebuyer education rather than research? That lives at firsthomeiq.com.