Gen Z May Surpass Millennials in the Homeownership Race—Here’s Why
Compared with Millennials, Gen Zers are more optimistic about homeownership as low interest rates and a flourishing work-from-home culture offer greater affordability and flexibility post-pandemic. While a survey by Gen Z Planet Research reveals that just 63% of Millennials plan to become homeowners in the future, 87% of Gen Z expressed a desire to own a home, and 68% consider homeownership as a way to build personal wealth, according to National Mortgage News.
Not only are Gen Zers already saving up or investing large portions of their $360 trillion in disposable income, but they may also become homeowners at a younger age than Millennials, likely passing up 48% of Gen Xers who owned homes at the age of 30.
Gen Z's dream of homeownership is nearly universal, [Hana] Ben-Shabat's study noted, especially when compared with millennials, the wave that many in the mortgage industry believe will sustain the market in the next few years.
While 87% of Gen Z answered that they would like to own a home in the future, just 63% of millennials had the same aspiration.
Because of their negative experiences, millennials questioned if they needed to own a home, avoiding taking on debt and making equity investments, Ben-Shabat said. The next generation has the opposite view.
"Gen Z is no stranger to financial difficulties or challenges because they [lived through] the peak of the 2008 recession," Ben-Shabat continued. "And they are the graduates of the global pandemic, but still even with that, they actually are very determined to handle these experiences and secure their future by taking calculated risk."