Oct 19, 2025
Millennials and homeownership has basically become a punchline, but the impact that today’s housing market has had on this generation is no joke.
And as millennials continue to feel squeezed out of the housing market, they haven’t exactly been silent about it. A recent survey from Bankrate found that one in six aspiring homebuyers in the U.S. have given up on the idea that they’ll ever own a home.
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The most frustrated generation was millennials, who represent 22% of the survey’s discouraged respondents. That’s the highest percentage among all generations — Gen X came in at 17%, while Gen Z and baby boomers each made up 12%. (1)
Meanwhile, the median age of first-time homebuyers has climbed since the 1980s. According to a study by the National Association of Realtors, in 1981 the median age of first-time homebuyers was 29, but in 2024 it hit a new high of 38 — up from 35 in 2023, and a previous high of 36 in 2022. (2)
Why millennials have struggled to break into homeownership
Millennials have had to endure two “once in a lifetime” financial crises — the 2008 financial crisis (also known as the Great Recession) and the COVID-19 pandemic. These events impacted everything for young people — their ability to afford higher education, to get into the job market, to save money and to purchase property.
One big reason is affordability. The median sales price for a new single-family house in the U.S. was $410,800 in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. (3)
This median sales price has generally trended upward since the 1960s, with a notable drop after the first quarter of 2007, when the median sales price of a home in the U.S. hit a high of $257,400 before falling to $208,400 by the first quarter of 2009.
As Americans recovered from the Great Recession, home prices started climbing once again. By the first quarter of 2019, 10 years after the lows of 2009, the median sales price was $313,000, which is an increase of 50%.
What followed was even more dramatic. The pandemic brought on a home-buying frenzy that saw prices surge as supply dwindled. From the second quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2022, median home prices went from $317,100 to an all-time high of $442,600, an increase of more than 39% in two and a half years.
While housing inventory has increased in some areas of the U.S., the recovery of inventory hasn’t been equal across the country, with median prices much higher in the Northeast ($796,700) than in the Midwest ($385,300), the South ($372,100) and the West ($531,100).
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The other big factor is mortgage rates, which have remained high since September 2022, when the average 30-year fixed rate climbed above 6%. (4)
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Is renting a better option?
Unfortunately for millennials, high purchasing prices and mortgage rates aren’t the only issues affecting their housing affordability crisis, as rent has also skyrocketed since the pandemic. According to a Consumer Affairs report, the national median rent has climbed more than 32% since 2020. (5)
The report, which features results from a survey of renters in 2024, notes that nearly half of the respondents said they had taken on debt just to afford their monthly rent. These respondents were reportedly forced to borrow money from family, take out loans or use credit cards in order to pay their rent.
Consumer Affairs also investigated whether wage growth was keeping pace with rent increases. Its analysis of wage differences from 2022 to 2023, compared to rent increases over the same period, found that wage growth outpaced rent by only 0.3% nationally.
Should millennials abandon their dream of homeownership?
On top of all the concerns mentioned above, millennials are also facing a tough job market. Although the job market saw growth for 53 consecutive months from December 2020 to May 2025, A CNBC report notes that this rebound came after the devastating effects of the pandemic, when roughly 20.5 million jobs were lost.
The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that unemployment has risen to 4.3% in recent months. CNBC’s report also noted that “the U.S. economy hasn’t added this few jobs in the first eight months of a year since 2010.” (6)
For millennials holding on to the dream of owning a home, saving as much as possible for a down payment and waiting to see if housing prices start to ease might be their best — and only — course of action.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Bankrate (1); National Association of Realtors (2); Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (3, 4); Consumer Affairs (5); CNBC (6)
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Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
