Mortgage rates dropped again last week, hovering just above 6% without any fancy financial footwork or rate buydowns. And for the majority of at least the last three years most of the educational content at building industry events presented by architects, planners and designers has shone the light on how to design and build more “attainable” homes, often couched as “how to make smaller floorplans work harder.” We seek solutions to provide homes more people can afford when land value and material costs seem to only go one way and impacts of the labor crisis are real.

In the heat of all the talk about dropping home values, rising inflation and interest rates, we asked 3,000 respondents to Wave 3 of the

TBWA\Worldwide’s Girr highlights three tenants of financial well-being related to home purchase:

  1. Balance. Do I want that dream home right away? Younger and first-time buyers ask themselves, ‘what do I want my house to fulfill? Do I want that big house, or do I want something that is a size that I can handle? Do I want something that I can potentially monetize so I can also enjoy experiences in my life?’
  2. Transparency/Honesty. Buyers are staying open about the way they feel about a big purchase and the situation they are in. This helps address the options available and means weighing the expense head-on and with bravery.
  3. Proactivity. Thinking and talking about it in advance to make sure they are in the right headspace when thinking about making a commitment like that and making sure what they buy ticks all the boxes in their value equation.

The rising cost of housing during a time where disruption is the new norm and consumers are not feeling particularly financially well gives homebuilders and community developers an opportunity to present different options and to present them transparently. TBWA\Worldwide’s Girr notes:

The bottom line is people are thinking differently about buying a home. And this change in thinking is really big and it’s positive. As we become more open in talking about money and its hold on us, people are opening themselves up to the idea that the traditional money milestones may not work for them or their life—whether it’s too heavy of an expectation or just not necessarily what they want or need to live a healthy and happy life. More specifically, this is challenging the idea of homeownership and the traditional way of doing it. And with that, we’re seeing a rise in non-traditional ways of purchasing a house where individuals are looking to buy houses with friends, crowd-vesting, looking into apps that facilitate co-ownership, even rent-to-own and try before you buy solutions. People are asking themselves: what do I really need this home for and what do I want it to fulfill for me?”

The cost of buying or renting is one thing. The cost of operating a home is an ongoing consideration that gets more focus than ever. From ways to conserve energy and track monthly savings, to making hard choices about the costs of operating your life if it requires too much time in a car, these are key decisions about whether and where to rent or own, and what to rent or buy. And while consumers weigh these decisions against how much money it saves, they are equally as concerned with the impact these decisions have on their personal health and well-being overall.

Financial well-being cannot be uncoupled from its direct impact on emotional, social, and physical well-being and it may finally be getting the airtime it deserves.

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