Against the odds, Gen Z is breaking into the housing market

Despite daunting market conditions, America’s youngest generation of adults is managing to break into the housing market in growing numbers.

Members of Generation Z, the cohort between the ages of 13 and 28, came of age during the economic upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the years since, home prices have surged and the nation’s housing shortage has deepened — conditions that risk leading some young adults to give up on the dream of homeownership altogether.

Still, many in Gen Z are forging ahead with homeownership. The generation now accounts for one in four loans issued to first-time home buyers, according to data from financial services company Intercontinental Exchange. And a Redfin report from January 2024 found that Gen Z’s homeownership rate is outpacing that of Millennials and Gen Xers when they were the same age.

There’s a growing divide within Gen Z between those with stable jobs or financial support who can afford to buy a home in today’s expensive market, and those who are priced out — not just of homeownership, but also the rental market, said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Wachter recently authored a study exploring why there has been a sizable uptick in the number of young adults living with their parents in recent years and found that affordable housing issues disproportionately impact minority groups.

“There are difficulties and challenges to buying a home,” Wachter said. “Some of which are more burdensome than on previous generations.”

Still, CNN spoke with several Gen Zers who recently bought homes and found that their paths to homeownership varied widely. Some received financial help from family, while others did it all on their own. Some carried student loan debt from four-year colleges, while others skipped college altogether.

What they all had in common, though, was the determination to own a home and the discipline to start saving early. Such long-term planning may have been essential for these young buyers to build the wealth necessary to break into today’s high-cost housing market.

Samantha Garcia, 23, and her fiancé recently bought a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home for $335,000 in Redding, a small town in Northern California. She had been setting aside $1,000 per month since 2022 to save up.

Garcia was willing to move from her home city of Los Angeles to Redding, a more affordable city where she had never lived, to achieve her goal of homeownership.

“I knew I was never going to buy in LA. There are hardly any single-family homes there for under $1 million,” she said.

When it came time to close on the home, Garcia’s fiancé’s parents surprised them with $25,000 toward the down payment.

“We actually weren’t expecting them to help,” Garcia said. “But it will help us keep our savings a little bit more afloat.”

Adriana Moorman opted out of attending a traditional four-year college, instead finding steady work in human resources.

At 21, she was debt-free and had been saving up to buy a home since high school. Aside from a small inheritance she said was worth a few thousand dollars, she was able to secure a $202,000 Baltimore condo on her own.

“I think I lucked out by being financially aware at such a young age,” Moorman said.

Emily Blaylock, a real estate agent in St. Louis, said the post-pandemic rise of hybrid and remote work has meant that more Gen Zers are willing to move further into the suburbs, away from city centers. She said she often works with buyers in their 20s, due to the relative affordability of her city.

“It’s true overall with all age groups right now, but especially with younger people, they’re OK with driving 25 minutes to downtown to get something they can live in comfortably and affordably,” Blaylock said. “A lot of young people don’t have to go into the office five days a week, so we’re seeing more people spread outside the St. Louis radius.”

Dominic Azpeitia, 26, was willing to move away from home to achieve homeownership. Although he hopes to return to Southern California one day to be near his family, he moved to Phoenix for its more affordable cost of living.

Azpeitia said he and his wife had been casually looking for the past few years and began to notice the rapid rise in home prices.

“I just decided last year, there is no point in waiting anymore,” Azpeitia said. “In my opinion, housing prices aren’t going to go down.”

Azpeitia said that while he had saved the money for a down payment, he worked out a deal with his lender and the home seller that meant he didn’t have to pay any money towards the down payment or closing costs.

He said he sees his Phoenix home, which was purchased for $520,000, as a long-term investment and that he hopes to rent it out to tenants in a few years.

While the housing market has been exceptionally tight for the last few years, there have been signs it may be softening. An analysis released last month by Redfin found that home sellers now vastly outnumber buyers, an early indication that negotiating power may be shifting back into buyers’ hands.

Some young Americans are taking advantage of that shift.

Rylee Arnold, 28, recently purchased a home in Salt Lake City and was pleasantly surprised when her seller offered to cover many of the closing costs.

“I probably wouldn’t have been able to purchase the house if the seller hadn’t given me so many credits toward the house,” Arnold said. “They kept fixing things for me too. Everything I asked for, they granted, so that was really nice.”