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High interest rates and low inventory have plagued the housing market, making it particularly difficult for younger adults to enter the world of homeownership. In recent years, millennials have notoriously struggled with owning houses — has Gen Z learned from their struggles enough to create better paths to homeownership?
At the very least, they’re keeping a positive attitude: Research from ServiceLink found that the younger generations had a more optimistic view of the housing market in 2024, with 56% of Gen Zers and 51% of millennials believing that conditions for buying were favorable, compared with 38% of Gen X and 18% of baby boomers. However, the survey results were not all that positive when it came to the respondents’ views on interest rates: Forty-two percent of those who considered buying a home in the past 12 months gave up the quest.
It’s all driving new trends in housing, especially among the youngest working generation. Gen Z is finding creative solutions to alleviate housing costs, with recent college graduates moving back home with their parents at a higher rate, as well as using “house hacking,” or renting out part of your property to afford housing costs.
Read more: Gen Z factors future rental income in home buying decisions
“Housing is very costly. People are definitely more open to sharing space,” Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president of mission and community engagement, recently told National Mortgage News.
Some loan officers, including John Birke of Movement Mortgage, have developed marketing aimed at tapping into this interest on TikTok, a social media channel the industry has increasingly been experimenting with as a way to reach younger generations.
“I’ve done several videos about house hacking. I think it’s going to become more and more popular in the future,” Birke said. “Both Gen Z and millennials are frustrated that they’ve been essentially shut out of the housing market with few options for buying a home.”
Gen Z may also have more pressing financial concerns to balance such as erasing debt, especially from student loans, according to a FinLocker survey last year. While mortgage lenders are seeking to court young homebuyers with attractive marketing, the appeal of rental income is undeniable.
Read more: Housing affordability initiatives launched this spring
There are, however, a few trends working in Gen Z’s favor. The flexibility of remote work, which Gen Z has benefited from for much of their adult life, gives younger adults the opportunity to buy homes in more affordable areas while still working jobs in expensive, urban areas.
Many Gen Z homeowners likely purchased during the ultra-low rate era of 2020 and 2021, data from Redfin suggests. Their advantageous window compares favorably to Millennials, who in their early 20s lived through the Great Recession, and Gen Xers, who faced mortgage rates around 11% in 1989, when the oldest of that cohort were 24 years old.
Read more about recent Gen Z housing trends below.
