Examining Homeownership Sentiments Across Generations

According to a new survey from ApartmentList.com, home prices have risen by nearly 30% since the onset of the pandemic two years ago, partly due to historically low levels of for-sale inventory available — propelling prospective homebuyers into highly-competitive housing markets and bidding wars.

Despite these challenges, majority of Americans believe that homeownership is an important goal worth striving for, although homebuyer sentiments vary by generation. In ApartmentList’s most recent survey, data finds that Baby Boomers are nearly twice as likely as members of Gen Z to rate the importance of homeownership at 10 out of 10.

The survey also revealed the widespread agreement that buying a home is a relatively difficult task from start to finish, with majority of survey respondents rating the difficulty of achieving homeownership at eight or higher, with Millennials having the most negative outlook. Few expect the situation to improve, with some 67% of Americans believing it will get more difficult to achieve homeownership over the next decade, while 14% project it to get easier.

Compared to prior generations, Gen Z is less convinced of the importance of homeownership. Homeownership has long been considered a core component of the traditional “American Dream,” leading to an ingrained view that purchasing a home is a key marker of success. However, it is found that it is still common for Americans of all ages to equate homeownership with success, but that this conviction is less strong for younger generations.

The survey question asked was, “On a scale of 1-10, how important is homeownership for your own personal success?” Overall, nearly two-in-three respondents rated the importance of homeownership at an eight or higher, while only one-in-ten gave a rating of three or less. Across all generations, the share of respondents who view homeownership as important significantly outweighs those who consider it unimportant. In fact, ten was the most common ranking for all generations.

More notably, Baby Boomers are most likely to include homeownership in their personal definition of success, with nearly half — 45% — ranking the importance of homeownership as a ten out of ten. This is even higher than the share among the older Silent Generation. Baby Boomers were raised during the period of rapid suburbanization following World War II, when ample new housing supply and readily available financing made homeownership more attainable than it had ever been before. Baby Boomers came of age at the same time that homeownership was becoming synonymous with the American Dream, and this is still reflected in their present day views.

For each generation younger than the Baby Boomers, the share who place the highest importance on homeownership gradually declines. Among Gen Z, some 23% ranked the importance of homeownership at ten, roughly half the rate among Baby Boomers. Many members of Gen Z are still years away from actively pursuing homeownership, and so their attitudes may shift over time. However, it’s also worth noting that most Millennials are in their prime homebuying years, and they also have more ambivalent views of homeownership’s importance compared to the generations that preceded them.

Millennials are most likely to say that purchasing a home is extremely difficult despite the perceived importance of homeownership, as the survey also found a broad consensus that actually achieving homeownership is no simple task. We asked “On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it for the average American family to afford and purchase a home?” Across our full sample, 10 was again the most common response. More than half of respondents rated the difficulty of purchasing a home at 8 or higher, while just four percent of respondents rated it at 3 or lower.

Among those in the Silent Generation – ages 76 and up – just 16% rated the difficulty of achieving homeownership at 10 out of 10. That share gradually increases for each subsequent generation up to Millennials, who have the most pessimistic view of the average American’s homebuying prospects. The share then drops again for Gen Z, whose views are more in line with Gen X. As mentioned above, Millennials are in their prime homebuying years and many are currently in the midst of navigating a historically tight housing market.

The survey revealed that it is likely that Millennials have a more acute awareness of the difficulty of purchasing a home than any other generation. Meanwhile, older Americans who purchased their homes long ago may be underestimating the challenges of the current market.

Across our full sample, just 14% of respondents believe that it will be easier to purchase a home ten years from now, while 67% believe that homebuying will be more difficult in a decade. These pessimistic views are likely informed by the fact that in many parts of the country, housing affordability has reached crisis levels in recent years, with potential solutions often mired in political stalemate. Pessimistic expectations heavily outweigh optimistic ones for each generation, but the magnitudes vary across generations. Here it is the older generations who are most pessimistic about future prospects for the housing market.

Only 9% of Baby Boomers expect homeownership to become more attainable in the future, compared to 17% of Gen Z. This may seem counterintuitive, given that the younger generations are bearing the brunt of the current housing market.

Currently in the midst of one of the most challenging times for the housing market in recent years, tight inventory and rapidly rising prices on both the rental and for-sale sides of the market remain factors in Americans believing that homeownership challenges will worsen over the next decade. Unfortunately, very few Americans believe that this situation will improve in the coming years, and a majority expect that it will worsen.

To read the full report and survey, including charts and methodology, click here.