- Homeownership for young Americans is a mixed bag. The homeownership rate for Gen Zers and millennials is ticking up, but both generations are tracking behind their parents.
- The homeownership rate for younger generations inched up from 2024 to 2025 because affordability and inventory improved slightly. But it didn’t surge, because housing costs remained historically high, and many young buyers were turned off by economic uncertainty.
- 20-somethings and 30-somethings both made up a bigger piece of the homebuying pie in 2025 than they did the year before.
Gen Z’s homeownership rate ticked up in 2025: More than one-quarter (27.1%) of Gen Zers nationwide owned their home, up from 26.1% a year earlier. Millennials also eked out a gain in their homeownership rate, to 55.4% from 54.9% a year earlier; it’s natural that millennials gain is smaller than that of Gen Z because they’re older and have had more time to buy homes.
This is according to a Redfin analysis of the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement. Please note that in this report, homeownership rate refers to the share of households headed by Gen Zers, millennials, Gen Xers or baby boomers that are owner-occupied; people who are living with their parents or other family members are not included in the calculation for their generation. Gen Zers were 13-28 years old in 2025; only adult Gen Zers (19-28 years old) were included in this analysis. Millennials were 29-44 in 2025, Gen Xers were 45-60, and baby boomers were 61-79. More on methodology is available at the end of this report.
For older generations, homeownership is holding steady at already-high levels. Just under three-quarters (72.7%) of Gen Xers owned their home in 2025, essentially unchanged from 72.9% a year earlier; for baby boomers, the rate was 79.9%, compared with 79.6% a year earlier. Higher homeownership rates for older generations is to be expected, as they have had longer to amass money to buy homes, and many older Americans found it easier to buy homes because costs were lower in past decades.
Bump in Homeownership For Young Americans is Gradual
The uptick in homeownership for Gen Zers is meaningful, but not explosive. For millennials, the increase represents stability. While affordability improved slightly in 2025 from the year before and supply rose, high costs and economic uncertainty continued to act as a roadblock:
- The weekly average mortgage rate fell from to about 6.2% from 7% at the start of 2025, and home-price growth lost steam throughout the year. As a result, monthly housing costs dipped to their lowest level in two years by the end of 2025. Average wages have increased in recent years, too. That opened the door for some young people to break into the market.
- More sellers put their homes on the market; the increase in inventory gave buyers more to choose from.
- But mortgage rates are still double their pandemic-era lows of roughly 3%, and while price growth has decelerated, home prices remain historically high. So while affordability is slowly improving in several parts of the U.S., homebuyers still need to earn $112,000 to afford the median-priced U.S. home–roughly $25,000 more than the median U.S. income. High housing costs are a bigger obstacle for young people than older people because they’re less likely to already own a home, meaning they can’t use equity to purchase their next house.
- Widespread economic uncertainty also put the kibosh on homebuying plans for many young Americans, with things like tariffs and lack of job security delaying major purchases.
Age is also a factor. Gen Zers and millennials turned one year older in 2025, aging more and more into homeownership. Millennials and older Gen Zers are in their peak homebuying years; they’re growing their careers, earning more money, paying down student debt, and some are feeling ready to trade rent for a mortgage. But many others–particularly younger Gen Zers–haven’t reached their peak earning years, haven’t had time to save for a down payment, and don’t have the funds for homeownership.
“The reality is that with housing costs still historically high, many young Americans are making compromises on location, size or timing to get their foot in the homeownership door and start building equity,” said Asad Khan, a senior economist at Redfin. “Gen Zers and millennials are making small gains in homeownership because they’re eager to buy, they’re making sacrifices, and because affordability has improved a bit at the margins–not because homes suddenly became affordable. We expect the slow progress to continue this year, with housing costs dipping slightly while wages rise.”
38% of the Oldest Gen Zers Own Their Home, Compared to 43% of Their Parents at the Same Age
We also took a look at homeownership data over time, which reveals that it was more common for young people to own homes in the past.
Take 28-year-olds as an example: 38.3% of 28-year-old Gen Zers owned their home in 2025, compared to 42.5% of Gen Xers when they were 28 and 44.4% of baby boomers when they were 28.
57% of Mid-Thirties Americans Own Their Home, Compared to 64% of Their Parents at the Same Age
Moving on to a millennial example, 57.2% of 36-year-olds owned their home in 2025, compared to 61.2% of Gen Xers and 63.7% of baby boomers when they were 36.
The comparatively low share of young homeowners today stems mostly from a relative lack of affordability. But it’s also because young adults are reaching milestones later in life than they used to. For instance, the average first-time mother in the U.S. is 27.5, up from 24.9 two decades ago.
It’s worth noting that the oldest Gen Zers are making more significant progress than younger ones. Just over 38% of 28-year-olds own their home, compared to 31.6% of 27-year-olds and 27.2% of 25-year-olds, and higher than millennials’ rate of 36.8% when they were 28.
“25-year-olds aren’t driving demand, but a fair amount of people in their thirties are moving out to the suburbs with their kids,” said Brenda Beiser, a Redfin Premier agent in Philadelphia. “The other pattern with younger buyers is that they want to be in specific neighborhoods, suburbs with highly rated schools and homes with enough space for a family–but that type of house is hard to find, because the older people living in them are locked in by low mortgage rates. I’m hoping more new listings emerge in the spring.”
20-Somethings Took Up Bigger Piece of Homebuying Pie in 2025
We also took a look at the share of home purchases made by each age group in 2025. The findings align with the uptick in Gen Z’s homeownership rate; they show that younger adults are gaining ground in the housing market.
Young adults (19-29 years old) took ownership of nearly one in five (18.5%) of all homes that changed hands in the U.S. in 2025, up from 14.4% the year before. The next-youngest age group, 30-39 year olds, bought the lion’s share of homes: 26%, up slightly from 25% the year before.
Despite affordability strains, more people in their twenties are finding ways to buy despite high prices and mortgage rates, often by purchasing smaller homes, moving to more affordable metros, or leaning on family help. And it stands to reason that 30-39 year olds are buying more homes than any other age group, as they’re in their prime buying years, moving for new jobs, new relationships, new babies, or new adventures.
Younger generations took up a bigger piece of the homebuying pie in 2025, compared to older Americans. People who are 60 and older bought 23% of homes in 2025, down from 30% the year before.
Methodology
The data in this report was calculated using the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement, from 1976 to 2025, and monthly IPUMS CPS data for 2025 through August. The data was accessed using IPUMS-CPS*. The homeownership rate is defined as the percentage of household heads who own a home versus rent, broken down by generation. Note that people who are living with their parents or other family members are not included in the calculation for their generation.
Gen Zers were 13-28 years old in 2025 (born 1997-2012); only adult Gen Zers (19-27 years old) were included in this analysis. Millennials were 29-44 (born 1981-1996) in 2025, Gen Xers were 45-60 (born 1965-1980), and baby boomers were 61-79 (born 1946-1964).
For the section on home purchases by generation, please note that the word “purchase” refers to the number of household heads who reported moving to a new home in the past year and owning their new home, by age group. While the vast majority of those moves are the result of a home purchase, some are the result of an inheritance or other property transfer.
*Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Megan Schouweiler, and Michael Westberry. IPUMS CPS: Version 12.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2024.
