Gen Z might be the luckiest homebuying generation. Here's where they're scooping up homes.
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- Gen Z is buying homes fastest in the Midwest, especially in Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.
- Gen Z is, in many ways, more equipped for homeownership than past generations at their age.
- Despite high student loan debt and housing costs, Gen Z remains somewhat optimistic about homeownership.
Gen Z is outpacing their older peers on homeownership — and they're doing so the most in the Midwest.
A new SmartAsset analysis found that Gen Z bought homes in 2023 at the fastest rate in the Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Cincinnati metro areas — and the slowest in California and the Northeast. The study defined Gen Z as under 25 years old.
Gen Zers are often outpacing older generations in buying homes in their early 20s. A January Redfin report found that in 2023, almost 28% of 24-year-olds owned their homes, compared to 24.5% of millennials and 23.5% of Gen X when they were 24. Over a quarter of Gen Z ages 19 to 26 owned a home in 2023, the report found.
However, Redfin found that 26-year-old Gen Zers are slightly behind millennials and Gen Xers at that age, while younger Gen Zers are all ahead of those earlier generations.
Another Redfin report from May found that nearly 40% of new mortgages were issued in 2023 to homebuyers under 35, higher than the two previous years.
Though just 1.6% of the local Gen Z population bought a home in the Indianapolis area, this was the highest share among the 40 large US metro areas SmartAsset analyzed. The median property value for these 2,266 new Gen Z homeowners in Indianapolis was $225,000, while the median income was $65,000.
A slightly lower percentage of Gen Z bought homes in St. Louis last year at just below 1.6% or 2,649 people. The median property value for this demographic, who earned a median of $63,000 a year, was $185,000.
Other metro areas seeing higher rates of new Gen Z homeowners included Jacksonville, Virginia Beach, and Kansas City. Homebuyers in Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh bought homes typically below $200,000 with median incomes below $65,000.
Texas, with some of the fastest-growing cities and towns in the US, had no metro areas in the top 10.
San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston had the lowest rates of new Gen Z homeowners at around 0.1% — with the median home value for new Gen Z homeowners surpassing $1 million in San Francisco. In fact, just 93 homes were purchased by Gen Z in San Francisco last year.
Why Gen Z may be luckier than older generations
On the whole, Gen Z may be more equipped than millennials at a similar age to buy a home, given that many millennials began their careers amid the 2008 recession when landing a well-paying job was challenging. Older Gen Z homebuyers also benefited from low mortgage rates in 2020 and 2021, coupled with a labor market that quickly bounced back after the sharp pandemic economic downturn.
Because many Gen Z homebuyers have been able to enjoy remote or hybrid roles in recent years, some may have opted to purchase a home in a lower-cost-of-living area farther from major city centers.
BI has previously reported that social media has made the process of homebuying more accessible, as many have taken to YouTube or TikTok to share how they bought their homes so young.
More Gen Z are living at home due to high housing costs, which has led many to amass enough money to purchase a home at a younger age — the multigenerational living rate has spiked over the last two decades, according to the Pew Research Center. Intuit Credit Karma found in January that nearly a third of Gen Z adults live with their parents.
While in the long run, homeownership rates are likely to be lower for Gen Z than older generations due to lower salaries and less time for investments to grow, Gen Z remains optimistic about their prospects of homeownership.
Still, many Gen Z Americans are facing high student loan debt and the same high mortgage rates and housing shortages as older generations.
Additionally, the majority of Gen Z who aren't homeowners could struggle in the coming years to build their wealth through homeownership, given predictions for high interest rates and home values for the next few years.
A July report from Bank of America further found that nearly half of Gen Z relies on their family for financial assistance, as Gen Z now spends significantly more on daily expenses than millennials and have lower wages adjusted for inflation than their parents.
More younger Americans are also increasingly looking at moving to the Midwest citing concerns about the climate crisis.
Have you recently moved to a new state? How does it compare? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
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