The homeownership rate for Gen Zers between the ages of 19 and 25 is higher than those for millennials and Gen Xers when they were the same age, according to a recent Redfin report.
In 2023, when the housing market saw a nationwide correction followed by a rebounding of prices across the country, 26.3 percent of adult Gen Zers owned a home, a slight uptick from 26.2 percent the year before, the report said. The homeownership rates among millennials and Gen Xers in 2023 were 54.8 percent and 72 percent, respectively—up from 52 percent and 70.5 percent in 2022.
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Though millennials and Gen Xers counted more homeowners among their ranks overall, the report found that Gen Zers were faring much better now than the two older generations did at their age.
In 2023, the homeownership rate among 24-year-old Gen Zers was 27.8 percent. When millennials were 24, their homeownership rate was 24.5 percent. And 23.5 percent of Gen Xers were homeowners at age 24.
According to the report, "The only Gen Zers who are tracking behind prior generations are 26-year-olds, who were the oldest Gen Zers." In 2024, that group had a homeownership rate of 30 percent, below the 31 percent for millennials and 32.5 percent for Gen Xers who owned homes at age 26.
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"Some Gen Zers took advantage of record-low mortgage rates during the pandemic and bought a home earlier than the previous generations were able to," Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist, told Newsweek.
When millennials were in their 20s, many struggled to find employment following the Great Recession, the financial crisis of 2007-2008, making it harder to save enough to buy a home. When Gen Xers were in their 20s, the U.S. housing market was navigating some of the highest mortgage rates in history. In 1989, rates were around 11 percent, Redfin reported.
"But now that mortgage rates are high, Gen Z isn't any better poised to buy a home than millennials were at their age," Fairweather said.
The situation for Gen Z has changed drastically since March 2022, when the Federal Reserve approved its first interest-rate hike in more than three years. In the following months, the central bank continued its aggressive rate-hiking campaign to stop the rise of inflation, which ended in December.
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The interest-rate hikes led to a surge in mortgage rates that made buying a home unaffordable for many and led to homeowners holding on to their properties for longer than they may have previously planned. While the situation affects everyone trying to buy a home in the U.S., Fairweather said "high mortgage rates have made buying a home especially unaffordable for first-time homebuyers, such as Gen Zers."
