The pandemic is motivating more millennials to feel like they’re finally ready to buy a home. But do they have the savings to do it?

Seventy-four percent of millennials—ages 25 to 40—recently surveyed by Point2Homes say they are interested in purchasing a home in the next 12 months. However, 88% say they have significantly less savings than the average national down payment amount, which is $62,600, according to the study. Fourteen percent of millennials surveyed admit they have nothing saved up for a home.

Certainly, down payment programs exist for those in need of help. But whether these programs will be sufficient for home shoppers whose savings are so tight is doubtful, financial experts say. Down payments of 0% and 5% are possible with a home purchase, but they tend to come at higher costs.

Forty percent of the millennials surveyed say they set aside 10% or less of their income for a down payment. What’s more, 40% of respondents believe that savings of $10,000 or less would be enough to buy a home. “But even if they’re considering 0%, 3%, or 5% down payment mortgages, very few of the 100 largest cities in the country have houses for sale that are spacious enough to meet millennials’ pandemic-induced demands,” the researchers note.

Those millennials who hope to buy a home of their own may be able to save more as they move back in with their families—an increasingly popular trend since the pandemic. “The coronavirus outbreak has pushed millions of Americans, especially young adults, to move in with family members,” the survey notes. “The share of 18- to 29-year-olds living with their parents has become a majority since U.S. coronavirus cases began spreading early this year, surpassing the previous peak during the Great Depression era.” The number living with parents grew to 26.6 million, an increase of 2.6 million from February. Assuming these young adults still have jobs, they may be able to ramp up their savings more for a down payment to eventually buy a home of their own.

The pandemic has prompted homeowners to reevaluate where they call home. Sears Home Services recently surveyed about 1,000 people nationwide on how they feel about home since the pandemic and the results show a growing dissatisfaction. Forty-four percent of respondents said they are less satisfied with their home since the beginning of the pandemic.

“There’s a sense of feeling ‘trapped’ when it’s required to remain inside; we’re missing the venues we used to frequent and perhaps noticing flaws of the home while spending more time there,” the survey notes.

Households with children all living in smaller spaces are more likely to be linked to owners’ dissatisfaction. Homeowners with children were 10 percentage points more likely to say they felt less satisfied with their home than those without. Also, homeowners with only one or two bedrooms were more likely to report being unsatisfied with their homes.

The growing dissatisfaction among homeowners after being hunkered down may be a big factor behind the surging housing market. Contract signings on homes surged to a record high in August and are now 24% higher than a year ago, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 42% of respondents say it’s more difficult to find “alone time” inside their home. Seventy-nine percent of respondents admitted to telling a lie in order to just get alone time at home. People with children were more likely to tell a lie for that reason. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they used their alone time to work on a home improvement project. Studies have linked home improvement with helping people feel a sense of enjoyment and offering a boost to their mental health.

Survey respondents said the four top features they most want to add to their homes are a home gym (41%), home office (37%), gaming space (32%), and kitchen space (31%).

“The more time you spend with something, the more you get to know it,” the survey notes. “With much of the world spending a highly unusual amount of time at home, we’re finding the things we want to improve but also benefiting more from those improvements.”

With mortgage rates hitting all-time lows in recent months, 75% of homeowners—or 19.3 million—could refinance and lower their monthly mortgage payments, according to data from Black Knight, a software and analytics firm for the mortgage and lending industry. That is the largest number of potential refinance candidates on record, Black Knight says.

What’s more, the average homeowner could potentially reduce their mortgage payment by $299 a month by refinancing, according to the analysis. Nearly 2.5 million homeowners could save even more—at least $500 a month, the firm says.

Banks offer competitive rates for refinancing, and mortgage experts say it’s important to shop around to get the best rate and lowest closing costs. The Mortgage Reports has compiled a list of which lenders tend to offer the best refinancing rates. It tracked data on refinance loans from the largest lenders in 2019. The following lenders topped the list for offering the most competitive 30-year refinance rates, on average:

1. Citizens Bank
2. Navy Federal Credit Union
3. USAA
4. Veterans United
5. Freedom Mortgage
6. LoanDepot
7. Bank of America
8. Caliber Home Loans
9. Quicken Loans
10. Wells Fargo

Navy Federal Credit Union, USAA, and Veterans United are available only to eligible veterans, service members, and people affiliated with the military.

The lenders that tend to offer the lowest refinance closing costs, based on 2019 data, according to The Mortgage Reports, are:

1. PNC: $1,018 (cost for a $250,000 refinance)
2. Veterans United: $1,303
3. USAA: $1,954
4. Chase: $2,514
5. Guaranteed Rate: $2,531
6. Wells Fargo: $2,571

View the full list of lenders ranked from The Mortgage Reports’ analysis.

Sales of newly built single-family homes in August reached their fastest pace since September 2006, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. They also attained another landmark: topping 1 million sales, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.01 million units. That marks a 43% jump when compared to last year.

“Already, more new homes have sold in 2020 than did in all of 2019,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “With the number of existing homes for sale down consistently and considerably from a year ago, new homes are an important segment of opportunity for home shoppers.”

But inventory levels of both existing and new homes may be preventing sales from stretching even higher. Housing inventories of existing homes is down 18.6% compared to a year ago. New-home sales fell to a 3.3-month supply in August.

“More construction is needed,” NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz says. “The challenge will be whether material and labor are available.”

Higher lumber costs and the limited availability of building materials in some markets is leading to higher prices in new-home construction. Lumber prices are now up more than 170% since mid-April, adding more than $16,000 to the price of a typical new single-family home, according to the NAHB.

The median price of a new home in August was $312,800. New-home sales were up on an annual basis in all four major regions of the U.S. The Northeast and Midwest each posted a 23.6% increase in August. The South saw sales rise 13.9%, and the West posted a 12.4% gain.

The pandemic has inspired a wave of home renovations as owners are spending more time in their homes. And renovators say it’s been good for their mental health, according to a new study conducted by CouponFollow of more than 1,000 homeowners and renters about do-it-yourself home projects they’ve tackled during the pandemic.

Thirty-four percent of respondents said DIY home improvement projects have aided their mental health during quarantine. Also, 49% of respondents said it’s given them a sense of enjoyment while being sheltered.

Fifty-five percent of homeowners were motivated to tackle a home improvement project due to social distancing mandates keeping them in their dwellings more than they may have been accustomed to.

“The results of this study showed some of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 lockdown,” the researchers noted in the study. “For many, months spent stuck at home became productive times for home improvement. And by the results of these projects, homeowners and renters are pretty handy: Over half of those who took on DIY home improvement projects were successful.”

Eventual financial benefits of these home renovations also proved a motivator. About a quarter of respondents said they were looking to sell their homes within the next five years. Sixty-nine percent said they were holding off due to the pandemic.

The top three DIY projects during the pandemic have been bathroom repair, interior house painting, and bathroom decor. Broken out by generation, baby boomers have focused on their bedroom decor, while millennials have been more interested in bathroom upgrades and repairs. Generation X has focused on interior house painting projects.

Dishwashers, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and other household appliances are low in stock nationwide, and some consumers are waiting months for their orders to be fulfilled. The backup is yet another problem you can blame on the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, as consumers started hoarding food, there was a rush on freezers. “We sold more freezers in two days than we did all last year,” Steve Sheinkopf of Boston-area Yale Appliance told NPR. “People were storing stuff because we thought this was the end of times. We needed food.”

Factories began scaling back production during the initial stages of the pandemic for employee safety and a belief that rising unemployment would lead to lower consumer demand. But demand for appliances has surged, while shipments of major appliances fell 7% year to date in June, NPR reports.

The surge in demand is due to people sheltering at home and using their appliances more, leading to breakdowns from overuse. Many homeowners also are seeking appliance upgrades. Now that the housing market is recovering quickly, there’s added pressure on appliance demand as consumers move to new homes.

Appliance manufacturers are warning of backlogs on several brands and models through the end of the year—and possibly even into 2021, NPR reports. “I have never experienced a year where there were shortages like we’ve seen this year,” Sandy Tau, owner of Long Island, N.Y.-based AHC Appliances, told NPR. “We have freezers that are on back order since the end of March that have still not come in.”

A new housing report shows 73.9 million Americans reside in a community with a homeowners association or condominium board. That is more Americans than ever, according to the Foundation for Community Association Research.

California now leads the nation with 49,200 associations, followed by Florida, with 48,500; Texas, with 21,000; Illinois, with 18,800; North Carolina, with 14,100; and New York, with 14,000, the report says.

In 2019, there were about 351,000 community associations in the U.S. The Foundation for Community Association Research estimates that the number in 2020 will increase to 354,000.

Most residents say they appreciate the work of their community association in helping to maintain standards in their neighborhood, according to the report. Seventy percent of homeowner and condo association residents rate their overall experience living in a community association as “very good” or “good,” according to the Foundation’s 2020 Homeowner Satisfaction Survey.

The value of homes in a community association is nearly $7.2 trillion. About $96 billion in assessments is collected annually from homeowners to fund essential maintenance in their communities, according to the foundation’s report.

As many local cities face financial challenges, many communities are requiring builders of new developments to create an association to assume many responsibilities that traditionally belonged to local and state governments, such as road maintenance and trash removal. Seventy-seven percent of new housing built for sale now falls in a community association. Homeowners contribute $27.4 billion to association reserve funds for the repair, replacement, and enhancement of common property areas, such as swimming pools and elevators, or resurfacing of streets.

© The Foundation for Community Association Research