More Millennials Now Own Than Rent

Throw out your old cliches about the millennial generation being largely renters – or worse, still living with their parents. New research shows more than half of this generation now are homeowners.

More millennials now own their own homes than rent, a remarkable shift in the status of the nation’s largest demographic group. And it means a change in perception for those businesses that cater to homeowners, like builders, contractors and home product suppliers.

New data from the online site RentCafe that focuses on the apartment market shows what it calls a “historic shift,” marking this change for what many people still characterized as the “renter generation” that would never move into home ownership.

“The pandemic and the evolution of the real estate market during the last few years didn’t suppress millennials’ appetite for buying forever homes,” the website wrote. “On the contrary, most millennials are now sipping their matchas in their own homes rather than in rentals.”

RentCafe says millennials gained 10.8 million homeowners in the last decade, including 7.1 million in the last five years to reach 18.2 million in 2022. “This boost tipped the balance in favor of homeownership and made millennials an owner-majority generation with a share of 51.5%.”

It said this generation is now in its “prime home-buying years,” and that in fact the pandemic, which caused many in this age group to move in with their parents may have actually helped the home buying surge. “With work-from-home supporting these decisions, many millennials saw this period as an opportunity to save for a down payment.”

The new research showed Gen Z as the only demographic group still with more renters than homeowners.

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