WASHINGTON — The Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and the late 1990s, are overtaking baby boomers buying the most homes.  The real estate website Zillow predicts that Millennials will, for the first time, buy more homes this year than those bought by members of the baby boom generation.

U.S. News and World Report says the demographic shift is changing the way real estate agents do business.

Millennials do a lot a texting, and they’re texting rather than calling real estate agents.  But there’s apparently a disconnect.  More than 80 percent of the nation’s real estate agents are over age 45, not a group wedded to texting.

Real estate firms adapting to the generational shift are benefitting.  For example, a California real estate firm serving Millennials reports that mobile traffic to its app is outpacing traffic to its desktop site.

There are other ways that Millennials are changing the real estate industry.  Agents say Millennials do their homework, choosing neighborhoods and researching comparable sales.  The agent is needed to interpret the information, not dig it out.

The young buyers also expect rapid customer service and they are looking to their agents for timelines, checklists and charts.