Gen Z Home Owners Ahead of Millennials (And Their Parents, Too)
A new study of home buyers found that the Generation Z generation – the youngest eligible to buy a home – are pulling ahead of older generations regarding home ownership, buying more homes than their parents did when they were in their 20s.
- Roughly 30% of Gen Zers, aka Zoomers, owned their home in 2022.
- Millennials only managed to represent 28% of 2022 home owners.
- Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980 came in lower, at 27%.
If you haven’t guessed how the 20-somethings of Generation Z managed to come out on top, they had an unfair advantage: the record-low interest rates of 2020 to mid-2022. When Millennials reached their 20s, they faced a totally different economic market. The older Millennials entered the workforce during the 2001 recession, while the younger ones faced the 2008-2009 financial crisis while still in their first jobs.
Another Gen Z strategy: buying in smaller cities where housing was much less expensive. While they headed to places like Virginia Beach, Millennials favored cities like Seattle, where homes cost literally three times as much.
Last but certainly not least: considering that Gen Z workers entered the workforce when remote and hybrid work was becoming the norm, this put them in a better position than the Millennials and Generation Xers, who often found themselves tied to a single location.4