For generations, young people came to the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton metro to visit their grandparents. Increasingly, they’re coming with mortgage applications.
The number of millennial homeowner households across the metro nearly tripled between 2018 and 2023, growing faster than in any other major U.S. housing market. Now, a separate analysis suggests the region is still building for more residents to come—ranking among the country’s leaders for both single-family and multifamily housing permits per capita.
Taken together, the findings offer a different picture of a region better known as a retirement destination: Younger adults aren’t merely moving here. They’re buying homes in large numbers, continuing to rent and helping reshape what gets built across Sarasota and Manatee counties…