LendingTree Study Reveals Auto Loans are Gaining Traction Among Millennials

LendingTree, Inc.

said that its fresh study pointed out that auto loans were gaining traction among millennials in Memphis, Milwaukee and St. Louis. According to the company, millennials sought auto loans more often than their counterparts in any of the nation's top 50 cities. LendingTree said that the millennials were at the forefront of a growing nationwide trend of young car buyers returning to the automobile market. The company said that it analyzed auto loan requests received between the period May 15, 2015 and May 15, 2016 for consumers aged between 18 and 34 years, along with requests from the total population of auto-loan-seekers in the same period. The company added that the city ranking was created from the percentage of all purchase auto loan requests that were submitted by consumers in the millennial generation. LendingTree said that Memphis, TN topped the list with 41.98% of all auto loan requests coming from millennials. It was followed by Milwaukee, WI (40.68%) and St. Louis, MO (37.88%). The company added that the Average auto loans to young borrowers in those cities were $11,791.22, $11,413.42 and $12,352.36 respectively. The company's founder and CEO, Dough Lebda, commented, "With unemployment among millennials improving, coupled with lower interest rates and low gas prices, the share of millennial auto loan requests is on the rise. Although the share of millennial auto loan requests is relatively lower in densely populated urban areas, the auto market appears to be enticing aging millennials." Despite the widely-held belief that millennials would become an increasingly smaller segment of the total car-buying population, the company pointed out that the share of auto loan requests from millennials were increasing in recent years. For instants, its share of requests grew to 34 percent in the current year from about 27 percent in early 2013. Shares of the company traded 3.5 percent down on Wednesday.