I think I have conservatively shown that the age bracket you suggested will provide a lot of pent up demand only represents a small portion of the population in SD. Again, no number playing just looking at census and income data. That is all that is needed to determine the size of the group you specified.
I read the same: 450k people age 20-30. That is 20% of total population in SD. From the income data (for all households, not just young ones), 30% of the population makes over $100k. This is 6% of the population at the most, since it is likely this age group makes much less than others. No playing with numbers, I even gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed the people 20-30 make as much as their elder brethren. You provided the marriage data (I had assumed the overall of 50% to be conservative), taking us to 2% of the population as married (i.e., combined income) and in the 20-30 age group.
I agree that salaries are higher here than average as well as education level. Neither of which changes the fact that the households in the 20-30 year old demographic making more than 100k that are married is 2% of the population in SD.
What is a significant amount? I don’t know. I could say the same to you … what do you consider a lot of pent up demand? Is 2% of the population a lot? How many of your friends with money to buy want a small condo in UTC? Maybe I am over the hill and out of touch with the younger folk (I am 35) but I wouldn’t consider buying these except as an investment. Currently it doesn’t seem like a very good investment, even if it pencils out as cash flow even, would you want to put your money you have been saving for years into something that is a lot of work to get no return? I am looking for relatively risk-free returns better than my money market account and do not see that in SD real estate. Not yet anyways 🙂