First comes house, then comes marriage.
Before rushing down the aisle, young couples are pledging their commitment to each other in ways past generations couldn’t imagine. Indeed, over 30% of Americans ages 18 to 29 want to buy a house before they get married, according to a survey on the future of relationships and weddings published by The Knot in August. Many buy homes with a partner, even though they’re not married.
Kalyn Franke, 28, did just that three years into her relationship with her then-boyfriend. “We didn’t want to wait any longer to get on the property ladder. We were in a position where we both had jobs that would help us get that elusive mortgage and paying rent was soul-destroying for us because we felt like we were throwing money away,” Franke says. Two years after buying their home in Orlando, FL, Kalyn and her boyfriend tied the knot.
And in 2016, Denise Lengyeltoti, co-founder of Los Angeles-based Be Boldly Public Relations, purchased a vacation rental with her then-boyfriend in Palm Desert, CA. “We had been dating for two years and I had been saving for a property but couldn’t afford anything I liked in LA,” says 32-year-old Lengyeltoti. Luckily for them, the home they fell in love with was a rental property with an existing client base. “I loved the idea of making revenue on the side and even though we had only been together for a couple of years, we knew this was the right decision for us—even though my family advised me not to invest with someone I wasn’t married to,” Lengyeltoti says. This summer, the couple said “I do,” and to this day, they use the property as their home away from home.