Gen Z Share of Homebuyers Rises to 4% in 2025, Still Far Below Previous Generations at Same Age

Francisco Vazquez, 27, recently bought a cute yellow three-bedroom home with a basement, garage and yard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for $220,000. He put down a large down payment and obtained a 15-year fixed rate mortgage after saving $72,000 in just over two years.

Vazquez lived rent-free with his parents for one year while saving for a home and spent hours this spring fixing it up before moving in, starting with tearing out the carpet.

"I sanded down all the hardwood floors, stained them again. I was adding polyurethane today. It's looking really nice," he said. Vazquez majored in conservation science on a scholarship and graduated with no student loans.

He worked in Texas helping rescue alligators and place them in a sanctuary, then worked at a zoo, but switched careers after deciding the low pay would not let him support a wife, kids or buy a home. Vazquez took a job managing a fast food restaurant in Wisconsin that offered great pay and benefits and has been promoted twice. He is newly married but bought the house on his own.

"Most of my paycheck, probably like 70%, [went] into just a broad index stock," he said of his aggressive savings plan. His biggest goal at the moment is just to retire early. Joanna Belechak, 25, bought a beige brick townhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, more than two years ago.

She lived rent-free for 18 months in a townhouse owned by her parents after college, and her parents contributed to her down payment. "I'm the only one on the mortgage and I'm taking care of the mortgage, so it's in my hands to figure out the rest of homeowning," she said. The average age of first-time homebuyers has climbed to 40.

Gen Z homebuyers outpace millennials at the same age. They are less likely to use help from parents than young millennials and far more likely to be single buyers, especially women. The share of single Gen Z buyers is double that of millennials at the same age, according to Jessica Lautz.

In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before, the National Association of Realtors reported. The National Association of Realtors counts Gen Z homebuyers as ages 18-26. Gen Z homebuyers had an average household income of $76,000.

Jessica Lautz is deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. While 16% of Gen Z buyers received a gift or loan from parents, that is lower than for young millennials. Thirty-five percent of Gen Z buyers in their 20s were single women.

"Gen Zers seem to have learned from millennials," said Jessica Lautz. She credits their use of social media for financial planning and notes they are taking advantage of government down-payment assistance programs at higher rates than all other generations. "They're embracing the knowledge that is at hand," Lautz said.

Gen Zers are more likely to tap a 401K because they are saving for retirement earlier. "I asked around the office to try and understand what's happening here and I was reminded, COVID," Lautz said. She suggested delays in getting marriage and partners started could explain the rise in single buyers.

"It's really amazing if you look back," said Sue Meitner, president of Centennial Lending Group in Pennsylvania. Women were not legally allowed to own a house until 1974. Sue Meitner specializes in helping women buy homes and finds many young women still do not believe they can buy a home on their own.

She encourages them to keep saving, ask for a raise or take on a side hustle. Belechak does not have many close friends who are also homeowners. Friends renting in far more expensive cities find it "crazy" that she actually bought a house.

She has a friend in Raleigh where it is a little bit more feasible, but views New York, Boston and Chicago as a pipe dream. Even in Pittsburgh the market was tough when she bought, and she feels job security and the overall economy have since gotten worse. "The cost of living in general is just so high," Belechak said.

NPR reported on the experiences of these young buyers amid a massive housing shortage that has pushed prices to record high unaffordability.