Millennials make up home buying majority in these obscure towns

An unlikely destination for Millennials?

Lima, Ohio might not be a very recognizable city to most, but it looks like Millennial homebuyers could change that. According to Ellie Mae’s latest Millennial Tracker, the tiny Ohio town held the No. 1 spot for highest share of Millennial buyers in August.

And the rest of the nation’s biggest Millennial hubs? They’re not much bigger.

The nation’s top Millennial cities

A whopping 72 percent of all buyers in Lima were Millennials in August—92 percent of whom were male.

Millennial buyers also dominated the markets in Batavia, New York; Dyersburg, Tennessee; Roswell, New Mexico; and Kendallville, Indiana. Millennials made up 71 percent of the market in Batavia, Dyersburg and Roswell, and 69 percent of buyers in Kendallville.

The high shares of Millennial buyers in these regions may have something to do with lower home prices. According to Ellie Mae’s data, the average Millennial took out a loan of just $95,511 in Lima.

And though buyers in Roswell had the biggest average loan amount of the five cities, it clocked in at just $131,119—more than $50K under the national average.

Conventional loans dominate among Millennials

Four of the five cities bucked a national trend, with single buyers outranking married ones. Roswell was the only locale to see an even split.

In Dyersburg, 67 percent of Millennial buyers were single. They also had the average age of 26.5—nearly three years younger than the national average. With an average age of 28, buyers in Lima were the oldest of the five cohorts.

Millennials largely gravitated toward conventional loans, according to Ellie Mae’s data. Across the U.S., 64 percent of Millennial borrowers used a conventional loan, while 32 percent used an FHA one. More than two-thirds of Millennial buyers in Lima used a conventional loan, while 23 percent had an FHA-backed one.

Another interesting tidbit? Millennials have pretty decent credit scores. Buyers in Lima had an average FICO of 734, while the national average of slightly under that at 724.

Check your home buying eligibility

These are just a few of the affordable markets where Millennials are flocking. Want to see if you’d qualify to join them? Get a home buyer’s eligibility check. In minutes, you could be on your way to owning a home.