At the turn of every new year, a question that always picks at any real estate professional’s mind – any good one, anyway, is – what does this year’s buyer look like?

The question is particularly important in 2017 because we’re starting it off by inaugurating a new president – one whose administration promises to be, for better or worse, decidedly different from his predecessors’.

In a recent survey, realtor.com attempted to gauge the buying market to better understand what is driving demand, what buyers are looking for in a home, where they are looking and myriad other considerations that go into making that ultimate purchase. And then they organized their results by generation (i.e., Millennials, Generation X, Generation Jones, Baby Boomers and The Silent Generation).

Millennials to start forming households

Over the next several days, we’ll be going through the results. First up: Millennials.

As our comprehensive table illustrates, Millennial buyers are finally getting to the point of household formation, which puts family as a top priority. You can see it in their home preferences (i.e., safer neighborhoods, larger yards) location preferences (i.e., inner and outer suburbs), and their motivations for buying (i.e., getting married and increasing their family size).

It looks like over the next 12 months, real estate professionals should expect a wave of Millennial buyers to start exploring homeownership. However, it should be noted that because of the generation’s penchant for planning and widespread financial hardships, buying will be an extended process – most (26 percent) don’t expect to buy until near the end of the year.