In previous generations, owning a home by early adulthood was a rite of passage. Today, for millions of Millennials and even Gen Z, the goal of homeownership is becoming increasingly elusive. In the United States and United Kingdom, younger adults face soaring property prices, stagnant wages, and fierce competition that have pushed the dream of owning property out of reach. Meanwhile in China, a very different story has unfolded – homeownership rates have surged to world-leading levels, though not without caveats. Below, we explore why Millennials (and Gen Z) are struggling to buy homes in the West, how the 2008 financial crisis changed the housing landscape, and how conditions in the UK and China compare.
Millennials and Gen Z: Homeownership Trends in the U.S.
For American Millennials – roughly those born 1981 to 1996 – the housing market has been profoundly challenging. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in the U.S. is now 36, the oldest on record. Traditionally, Americans bought their first homes in their late 20s or early 30s, but that timeline has stretched significantly. In 2022, first-time buyers made up only 26% of home purchasers, a historic low compared to the long-term norm of 40%. In other words, Millennials are under-represented among home buyers given their share of the population. Many are delaying homeownership or giving up on it entirely, a stark contrast with prior generations.
One clear indicator of the generational gap is the homeownership rate among young adults. Americans under age 35 have consistently lagged behind previous generations in owning homes. In fact, the average homeownership rate for Americans under 35 was about 39-40% for Baby Boomers and Gen X at that age, but Millennials have never reached that level. Even as the oldest Millennials enter their 40s, they remain less likely to own homes than their parents were at the same age. About 62% of 40-year-old Millennials owned their home in 2022, compared to 69% of Baby Boomers when they were 40. This generational deficit suggests that many Millennials are permanently “behind” in housing wealth.
Gen Z, the cohort born after 1996, is only beginning to enter the housing market – and their trajectory is uncertain. Interestingly, a brief window of opportunity during 2020–2021 allowed some of the oldest Gen Zers to become homeowners thanks to ultra-low interest rates and remote-work flexibility. By 2022, about 30% of 25-year-old Gen Z adults were homeowners, slightly higher than the 28% rate for 25-year-old Millennials at the same age. This indicates Gen Z was temporarily tracking ahead of Millennials in early home-buying. However, experts caution this head start may not last. Those Gen Z who did not buy during the pandemic’s low-rate boom now face the same affordability crunch – or worse – than Millennials. As of 2024, both Gen Z and Millennials have seen their homeownership rates stall amid rising mortgage rates and home prices. The initial Gen Z edge could evaporate as housing costs outpace young workers’ incomes.
Why are young Americans struggling? Several economic hurdles have converged against prospective Millennial and Gen Z homebuyers:
- Skyrocketing Home Prices vs. Stagnant Wages: Over the past decade, U.S. home prices have risen far faster than incomes in many cities, making the standard 20% down payment unachievable for young adults. Inventory is also near historic lows – the number of homes for sale in the U.S. has hovered around 1 million, an unusually tight supply. With high demand and scarce supply, prices remain elevated even as interest rates climb. Many Millennials entered the job market during the sluggish post-2008 recovery, with wage growth that failed to keep up with housing inflation, putting purchases out of reach.
- High Debt and Cost of Living: Millennials are often juggling multiple financial burdens that their parents did not at the same age. Surveys of first-time buyers show that significant shares cite high rent (40%), student loans (35%), credit card and auto debt (nearly 40% each) as obstacles to saving for a down payment. Paying steep rents makes it hard to amass savings, and indeed a record 27% of first-time buyers in 2022 moved directly from a family member’s home rather than renting, to cut costs. Millennials also graduated with unprecedented student loan debt, unlike Chinese young adults who largely avoid student loans due to low tuition (more on that later). These headwinds have forced many U.S. Millennials to delay buying until their late 30s, if at all.
- The Great Recession’s Shadow: Crucially, Millennials’ prime early-career years were marked by the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. As discussed next, the housing crash didn’t just pause Millennial homeownership – it fundamentally reshaped the market they would later try to enter.
The 2008 Crisis and the Investor Landlord Takeover
No event looms larger in Millennials’ economic story than the housing bust of 2008. When the U.S. housing bubble burst, millions of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure. Many Millennials, then in their 20s, saw their families’ home equity evaporate or graduated into a desolate job market. Homeownership among young adults plunged in the years after the crash, and the ripple effects are still being felt today. But another, less-discussed outcome of the Great Recession has also made it harder for Millennials to buy: Wall Street investors swooped into the void, buying up houses en masse.
Starting around 2011–2012, deep-pocketed investment firms began purchasing tens of thousands of single-family homes, especially in hard-hit markets, converting them to rentals. Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, founded a subsidiary, Invitation Homes, to buy foreclosed houses and turned it into a rental empire. Between 2012 and 2016, Blackstone alone acquired almost 50,000 single-family homes to rent out. Other firms like Cerberus Capital, American Homes 4 Rent, and Colony Capital joined the fray. The result was the birth of a new class of corporate landlords and a permanent loss of entry-level homes from the for-sale market.
This investor buying spree accelerated a generational power shift in housing. As older Boomers held onto their houses longer and institutional investors added to their portfolios, fewer homes were left for the next generation to purchase. By 2023, Americans over 55 owned 54% of all owner-occupied homes, up from 44% in 2008, while the share owned by those aged 35–54 fell sharply. In effect, Millennials and younger Gen X have been squeezed out by a combination of their parents’ generation (who are aging in place rather than downsizing) and profit-seeking corporations.
The scale of Wall Street’s incursion is striking. Blackstone’s venture became the largest single-family landlord, and by 2022 Blackstone’s various real estate holdings encompassed roughly **350,000 residential units in the U.S.**. Nationwide, nearly one-fifth of all homes sold in early 2024 were bought by investors, not families. Critically, these purchases are concentrated in the lower-priced starter homes that first-time buyers typically need. Investors often outbid ordinary buyers – sometimes paying in cash or snapping up listings before they hit the open market, and then turn the homes into rentals with high rent rates. This not only reduces the supply of homes for sale, but drives up housing costs for young people whether they try to buy or continue renting.
The long-term impact is that Millennials increasingly find themselves competing in a market dominated by those with far more capital. In a cruel irony, many Millennials who could have afforded a mortgage in the 2010s ended up renting the very same homes from investor-landlords. As one report noted, this trend has produced “an epidemic of corporate landlords” and “Wall Street is killing the housing market” for regular people. More than 15 years after the crash, the legacy of 2008 is a structurally altered housing system – one in which Millennials may be the first American generation to broadly remain tenants rather than homeowners well into middle age.
Britain’s Generation Rent: Homeownership Woes in the UK
Across the Atlantic, the situation for young people is remarkably similar. The United Kingdom has even coined the term “Generation Rent” to describe Millennials and Gen Z who are resigned to lifelong renting. Housing affordability in the UK, especially England, has deteriorated for decades, pricing out many first-time buyers. Recent figures warn that up to one-third of UK Millennials may never be able to own a home, and about half will still be renting in their 40s. This marks a dramatic reversal from mid-20th century Britain, where homeownership steadily expanded to the middle class; now that ladder has effectively been pulled up.
The statistics behind this generational divide are striking. Over 50% of UK Baby Boomers owned property by the age of 30, but less than 30% of Millennials do at the same age today. In other words, a majority of Boomers had bought homes by the time they were 30, whereas most Millennials in Britain are still renting at that age. Overall homeownership rates for young adults have collapsed. In 1997, about 55% of UK 25–34 year-olds were homeowners, but by 2017 that figure had plummeted to 35%. There has been a small rebound in the last few years (reaching ~39% by 2022) as some Millennials purchased homes in their 30s, but young adult homeownership is still 20 percentage points lower than it was in the year 2000. The drop in homeownership is most pronounced for those without affluent parents; family wealth has become a key determinant of who can buy a house in the UK.
Why is it so hard for young Britons to get on the property ladder? The core issue is housing affordability. Property values have far outpaced incomes, creating a massive gap. In 1980, the average house price in England was around £20,000 (roughly £100k in today’s money); by 2022, the average price was £280,000. Put another way, the home price-to-earnings ratio hit a record 8.4× by 2022, meaning the typical home costs over eight times the average yearly income, double the ratio of the early 1990s. In London and parts of southern England the ratio is even higher, often exceeding 10× annual salary. For a generation facing these prices, scraping together a mortgage deposit (commonly 10-20% of the price) is an enormous hurdle. The need for large deposits is compounded by stricter lending standards introduced after 2008, which, while prudent, mean that young buyers without parental help or exceptional incomes often cannot borrow enough to buy in high-priced regions.
Despite government schemes like Help to Buy and temporary stamp duty (tax) breaks, the overall trend remains daunting. The average age of a first-time buyer in the UK has crept into the mid-30s (about 34 in England as of 2023). Renting into one’s 30s or 40s has become the norm in expensive cities. As in the U.S., the 2008 financial crisis hit UK Millennials hard, with many entering a weak job market just as credit tightened. The ensuing decade saw a surge of cash-rich investors and foreign buyers (from Russia, the Middle East, China, etc.) buying London real estate, further driving up prices for locals. In recent years, a shortage of housing supply, especially affordable starter homes, has kept prices high even as the number of sales slows.
The term “Generation Rent” reflects not a preference but a predicament. Surveys find that most young renters do want to buy a home eventually, but feel locked out. As one housing report summarized: property ownership is now “out of most people born after Gen X’s grasp – especially for those not born into family wealth”. The UK’s homeownership dream, much like America’s, is increasingly becoming a privilege of the wealthy or the old. Without significant changes – such as massive homebuilding to increase supply or new models like longer-term rental security – many British Millennials and Gen Z may never climb onto the property ladder at all.
China: A Different Path to Homeownership
While young adults in the U.S. and UK face declining homeownership, their counterparts in China have experienced the opposite trend. China today boasts one of the highest homeownership rates in the world – roughly 90% of households in China own their home. This astonishing figure reflects unique economic and cultural factors. After China’s housing reforms in the late 1990s (which privatized state housing), a real estate boom ensued that turned a nation of renters into a nation of owners. Homeownership became not just common but expected: owning a home is seen as a prerequisite for adulthood and marriage in Chinese society. As a result, young Chinese have flocked into homeownership at rates unheard of in the West.
According to a global survey by HSBC, about 70% of Chinese Millennials owned a home as of the late 2010s, compared to only 40% of Millennials worldwide. And those who didn’t own yet overwhelmingly aspired to – 9 in 10 Chinese Millennials who were renting planned to buy a home in the near future. More recent data suggests the momentum continues: by 2023, combined homeownership among China’s Millennials and Gen Z reached approximately 78%, up from 68% in 2021. In short, the vast majority of young Chinese adults either already own property or fully intend to – a stark contrast with the pessimism in New York or London.
How has China achieved what some call “the golden age of homeownership”? Several factors are at play:
- Cultural Expectations and Family Support: In China, it is culturally important, especially for men, to own a home before getting married. This norm drives families to pool resources to help young adults buy early. It’s common for parents (and even extended family) to fund down payments; at least 40% of Chinese millennial homeowners received financial help from their parents. Rather than expecting each generation to start from scratch, Chinese families often view buying a home for the son or daughter as a collective investment in the family’s future. The pressure is immense, being unable to buy a home can even disrupt one’s marriage prospects.
- Low (or No) Student Debt: One reason Chinese twenty-somethings can save for a house is that they aren’t buried in student loans. Higher education in China is heavily subsidized; tuition can be as low as a few hundred dollars per semester at public universities. Many students’ parents cover those costs. The result: student debt is virtually nonexistent in China, whereas American Millennials often spent their 20s paying off college loans. A Chinese graduate can start working and saving immediately for a home, or rely on parents who saved money that might otherwise have gone to tuition. This head start is a major financial advantage.
- Urbanization and Government Policy: China’s rapid urban growth and pro-homeownership policies also played a role. As hundreds of millions moved from rural areas to cities, buying apartments became a way to establish one’s new urban status. The government encouraged housing sales through measures like subsidized mortgages and by promoting commercial housing construction as a pillar of economic growth. Until recently, property values climbed so reliably that buying a home was seen as a guaranteed path to wealth – further incentivizing young people to become owners as soon as possible. Indeed, many Chinese households own multiple properties as investments. The People’s Bank of China reported that as of 2020, 20% of Chinese households owned more than one home, thanks to decades of easy credit and the belief that real estate is the safest asset.
China’s youthful homeownership boom does have caveats. The national rate of ~90% includes rural villagers who often build homes on family land (boosting the ownership statistics). In big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, housing is extremely expensive, often 20–30 times average annual incomes, so young people there may still struggle without substantial family assistance. More recently, China’s real estate market has shown cracks: housing prices have stagnated or fallen in some cities amid a broader economic slowdown and a glut of new apartments. Housing affordability in major Chinese cities remains a challenge, and many young urbanites are stretched thin by mortgage payments. Additionally, owning property in China doesn’t always equate to security; most urban homes sit on land leased from the state with 70-year limits, and the phenomenon of unoccupied “ghost apartments” (bought as investments and left empty) is well documented.
Nevertheless, the overall picture in China is one of mass homeownership as the norm, even for younger generations. China’s Millennials entered the workforce during an economic boom, and with familial support they capitalized on an expanding housing market. The end result is that nearly four out of five Chinese Millennials/Gen Z today own homes, a statistic that seems almost utopian to Americans or Brits in the same age bracket. It’s a testament to how different policy choices, economic conditions, and cultural expectations can shape generational outcomes. Without romanticizing, since China’s model comes with high household debt and other risks, it shows that declining youth homeownership is not an inevitability everywhere.
The Future of Homeownership: An Uncertain Road Ahead
The gap between those who own property and those who do not is growing into a major societal fault line. If current trends continue, Millennials in the U.S. and UK could become a “lost generation” for homeownership – reaching their 40s and 50s with far lower ownership rates and housing wealth than prior generations. The consequences are broad: housing is not just shelter, but a primary means of building equity. Less ownership means less wealth accumulation over a lifetime, greater inequality, and potentially a generation entering retirement still burdened with rent or mortgages. Socially, the decline in ownership could reshape communities, as younger people are priced out of the neighborhoods they grew up in and the concept of the “family home” to pass on becomes rarer.
Is this collapse of homeownership for young adults inevitable? Some analysts hold out hope that we may simply be seeing a delayed timeline, that Millennials might just buy homes later in life rather than never. Indeed, U.S. Millennial homeownership did tick up in the late 2010s into the 2020s as the oldest Millennials hit their late 30s and early 40s. Similarly, in Britain, home-buying by Millennials slightly increased once they entered their 30s, after hitting bottom in the 2010s. These trends suggest that given enough time (and perhaps assistance from parents or inheritances), some Millennials will eventually own homes, just on a delayed schedule. However, fresh challenges like the post-pandemic surge in inflation and interest rates are now adding new barriers. For example, a U.S. buyer in 2023 faces mortgage interest rates around 7%, roughly double the rates of a few years earlier – dramatically increasing the monthly cost of any given home price.
On the policy front, there are discussions on how to restore housing affordability. In the U.S., proposals range from tackling zoning laws to allow more housing construction, to instituting rent control or first-time buyer assistance. Advocates point to ideas like social housing – housing built by non-profits or government with permanently affordable rents – which is common in some European countries, as a potential solution. Others argue for discouraging speculative home purchases by institutional investors, for instance through higher taxes on investment property or limits on bulk purchases of single-family homes. The challenge is immense: reversing a multi-decade market shift will require sustained political will and investment.
In the UK, there are calls for a massive house-building program and reforms to property tax and planning rules to increase supply. Britain’s government has at times floated targets for new homes and schemes to help first-time buyers with down payments. But local opposition to development (NIMBYism), along with the sheer cost of building in high-demand areas, makes rapid progress difficult. Without a significant increase in affordable housing stock, prices may not drop enough to make buying viable for the average young family, even if wage growth improves.
Meanwhile, in China, the question is whether its extraordinary homeownership rates are sustainable. With the property sector now facing a downturn, younger Chinese might not see the same relentless price appreciation that earlier owners enjoyed. The government is trying to manage a soft landing for the real estate market to avoid a crash that could wipe out household wealth. If property values stagnate, highly-leveraged young owners could find themselves in a tough spot, but unlike Western Millennials, at least they have an asset to their name.
The fate of Millennial and Gen Z homeownership will shape the future of our societies. The contrast between West and East is illuminating: in the U.S. and UK, a mix of economic forces and policy failures has led to dwindling affordability and whole cohorts locked out of ownership. In China, a combination of cultural priorities and aggressive building created a near-universal ownership society, yet one not without its own concerns. Neither situation is entirely stable or ideal. For Millennials who came of age in the late 2000s and 2010s, economic upheaval defined their early years, and the repercussions are still unfolding in the housing market.
As it stands, the collapse of homeownership for this generation is not absolute, but the trend is clearly downward in the West. Reversing it would likely require bold action: large-scale housing investments, economic shifts, or generational wealth transfers on a scale we haven’t yet seen. Otherwise, we may be witnessing a permanent change in who owns property – with Millennials and Gen Z relegated to a lifetime of renting, and the traditional ideal of owning one’s home fading for all but the most fortunate. The stakes are not just personal but societal, as homeownership has long been tied to financial security and community stability. Whether today’s young adults will ever broadly attain that security remains an open question, one that will be answered in the coming decade.