A recent report by RentCafe has revealed that millennials have shed their long-standing reputation as “the generation of renters” and have emerged as a majority homeowner generation.
The study found that seven million people in this age group have managed to purchase their own homes over the past five years, making it the largest growth in homeownership among any generation.
This trend is reflected at the metro level, with over a quarter of the 110 largest metros seeing a doubling in the number of millennial homeowners between 2017 and 2022.
Some metro areas saw noticeable changes in millennial homeowners, such as Modest, California, which recorded a 23.79 percentage point increase. The next largest increase in a metro area saw North Point, Florida, at 8.04 and Colorado Springs at 5.16. However, the report highlights that Baby Boomers remain the largest homeowner (and homebuying) generation according to the latest NAR report.
Meanwhile, millennials still continue to dominate the rental market, with the largest number of apartment dwellers across the US.
Millennial homeowners
There are 18 million millennial homeowners in the US, accounting for 52% of the total millennial households across the country. In 2017, the number of millennial homeowners totalled 11 million, while the share of Millennial owners was only at 35%.
Even in more affluent metro areas, millennial homeownership has witnessed a surge. In cities like New York and Seattle, the number of millennial homeowners jumped by almost 90%, according to the report, which is higher than any other generation.
In Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the number of millennial homeowners increased by more than 70%. Furthermore, in some large metro areas such as Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio and Orlando, the number of millennial homeowners has more than doubled in just five years.
[Read more: Competition for rental properties in the US sees rebound in New York and Silicon Valley]
