{"id":79480,"date":"2025-03-24T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/?p=79480"},"modified":"2025-03-21T11:21:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:21:20","slug":"homeownership-rate-by-generation-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/homeownership-rate-by-generation-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Z and Millennial Homeownership Rates Flatlined in 2024 As Housing Costs Soared"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young Americans are also tracking behind their parents’ generations; for instance, 33% of 27-year-olds own their home today, compared to 40% of baby boomers when they were 27.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Young Americans are losing their momentum when it comes to homeownership. Just over one-quarter (26.1%) of Gen Zers owned their home in 2024, essentially flat from 2023 (26.3%) and 2022 (26.2%). Before that, the Gen Z homeownership rate had increased each year since Gen Zers started aging into potential homeownership in 2017 (except 2022, when it stayed flat).<\/span><\/p>\n

The story is similar for millennials: 54.9% of millennials owned their home last year, essentially unchanged from 2023, when it was 54.8%. Prior to 2024, the millennial homeownership rate had increased each year since 2012.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gen Zers were <\/span>12-27 years old<\/span><\/a> in 2024 (born 1997-2012); only adult Gen Zers (19-27 years old) were included in this analysis. Millennials were 28-43 (born 1981-1996) in 2024, Gen Xers were 44-59 and baby boomers were 60-78.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Older Americans saw their homeownership rates increase slightly in 2024: 72.9% of Gen Xers owned their home in 2024, up from 72% in 2023. And 79.6% of baby boomers owned their home, up from 78.8%. Those small increases are fairly standard for older generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We might expect the homeownership rate for millennials and Gen Zers to continue increasing because they\u2019re in prime homebuying age, and many are getting married, starting families and settling into their careers. But many people in those generations have been unable to buy homes because sale prices and mortgage rates have soared over the last few years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mortgage rates started rising rapidly in 2022 after several years of record lows: Weekly <\/span>average rates<\/span><\/a> went from around 3% at the start of 2022 to 7% by the end of the year, and they\u2019ve remained elevated between 6% and 7% since then. High mortgage rates were exacerbated by the fact that low inventory kept home prices stubbornly high in many parts of the country. By spring 2024, the typical homebuyer was paying roughly $2,800 per month, an all-time high.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And even though average <\/span>wages have increased<\/span><\/a> in recent years, too, they haven\u2019t risen as fast as housing costs, pricing many people out of homeownership. High housing costs are a bigger obstacle for young people than older people because they\u2019re less likely to already own a home, meaning they can\u2019t use equity to purchase their next house.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also a few other reasons for the stagnation in homeownership rates for young people:<\/strong><\/p>\n