Millennials homeowners now overtaking the renters in their generation
Heather Hunter
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More than half of millennials now own homes, according to a recent study conducted by Rent Cafe.
Millennial homeowners now outnumber renters in their generation by nearly 52%. In 2022, there were 18.2 million millennial homeowners across 260 U.S. metropolitan areas, compared with 17.2 million renters. The largest share of millennial homeowners was found in Midland, Texas, followed by Provo, Utah.
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Rent Cafe used data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), a part of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation at the University of Minnesota.
The study defined “millennials” as being between the ages of 27 to 42 this year.
Authors Neil Howe and William Strauss, the co-creators of the Strauss–Howe generational theory and the foremost experts on generations, originally coined the term “Millennial Generation” in 1987. They defined the generation as being born between the years of 1982 and 2004, making the oldest millennial 41 years old this year and the youngest only 19 years old.
Pew Research Center alternatively sets their generation markers within the birth years of 1981 to 1996. “Millennials” were given the name because the oldest of their generation were becoming adults around the end of the millennium in the year 2000, and the youngest were born just ahead of it.
Millennials are no longer a younger generation without responsibility — some are now adults in their 30s and early 40s, ascending in their professional fields, experiencing major milestones including marriage, children, and home ownership.
In March, the National Association of Realtors released their 2022 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report and found that home ownership among millennials significantly increased, making up 43% of home buyers, the most of any generation.
This is an increase from 37% the previous year. Sixty-five percent of millennials found their home on the internet, and 87% of millennial buyers purchased their home through an agent.
Generation X continues to buy the most expensive homes at a median price of $320,000.
According to the National Association of Realtors, cash-flushed Baby Boomers have made home buying challenging for their Millennial competitors by purchasing 39% of all homes that sold between July 2021 and June 2022.
Droves of younger home buyers entered the housing market during the pandemic with historically low mortgage rates helping millennials buy homes for the first time. However, the housing market is now showing signs of cooling.
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A 2023 Millennial Homebuyer Report found that 82% of millennial homeowners have at least one regret about their first home purchase. In the list of their home-buying regrets, they listed paying too high of an interest rate, not being educated about home buying, buying a home in a neighborhood that changed too much, buying a home in a bad location, not anticipating their future needs for a home, and buying a fixer-upper home.