More Gen Zers owned their homes in 2025 than the year before, indicating they will be the new growth demographic in the domestic housing market, even as Millennial ownership also edged up, real estate brokerage Redfin reported.
In 2025, 27.1% of Gen Zers across the United States owned a home, according to Redfin, up from 26.1% in 2024, despite many in the cohort still being in their teens. The Millennial homeownership rate rose slightly to 55.4% from 54.9% in the year earlier.
Homeownership among older consumers held steady in 2025 at 72.7% among Gen Xers, essentially flat from 72.9% in 2024, and at 79.9% among Baby Boomers, compared with 79.6% in 2024. Redfin characterized the uptick in homeownership for Gen Zers as meaningful but not explosive. For Millennials, the increase represents stability, Redfin maintained. Home affordability improved slightly in 2025 from the year prior and supply rose, but high costs and economic uncertainty continued to act as a roadblock to purchasing for some prospective homeowners, according to Redfin.
The weekly average mortgage rate fell to approximately 6.2% from 7% at the start of 2025, and home-price growth lost momentum as the year progressed, Redfin noted. As a result, at 2025’s end, monthly housing costs decreased to their lowest level in two years.
Average wages have increased in recent years, Redfin indicated, which has enabled some young people to purchase homes. Still, Redfin observed, homebuyers need to earn $112,000 to afford the median-priced U.S. home, roughly $25,000 more than the median U.S. income.
“The reality is that with housing costs still historically high, many young Americans are making compromises on location, size or timing to get their foot in the homeownership door and start building equity,” said Asad Khan, a Redfin senior economist. “Gen Zers and Millennials are making small gains in homeownership because they’re eager to buy and because affordability has improved a bit at the margins, not because homes suddenly became affordable. We expect the slow progress to continue this year, with housing costs dipping slightly while wages rise.”
