Fewer adults under 25 are homeowners, but Virginia Beach, Virginia, leads the nation for the share of homeowners who are.
Redfin ranks Virginia Beach No. 1 for Gen-Z homebuyers last year. Those under 25 years old bought roughly 9% of primary homes that sold there last year, a bigger share than anywhere else in the country.
Virginia Beach is home to one of the biggest U.S. military bases, and Redfin said nearly half of mortgaged home sales there last year used VA loans. Those loans are available to service members and require very low or no down payments. That makes purchasing a home more attainable for young buyers who have not built up a lot of savings.
Nationwide, Gen-Z homeowners are ahead of their parents’ generation. In 2022, 30% of under 26 adults owned their home, higher than the 27% rate for Gen Xers when they were the same age.
It is slightly lower than the homeownership rate for baby boomers, 32% when they were the same age.
Redfin said a 25-year-old homeowner’s median monthly mortgage payment in 2021 was $1,013, or 16% of their median income. That is just slightly more than the median monthly payment of $904 for a 25-year-old homeowner in 1990.
Redfin reported the numbers for 2021 because those are the most recent available for payment relative to income. It is likely Gen-Z buyers are spending more of their income on monthly payments now than those who bought in 2021 because of higher mortgage rates.
Baby boomers are the largest homeowners by generation, at 79%, followed by Gen X, at 71%, and millennials at 52%.
Check out Redfin’s full report on homeownership by generation.
