And it shows in the data: In 2024, there were more home buyers over the age of 70 in the U.S. than under the age of 35, data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows. 

According to NAR, the share of “older” baby boomer (1946-1954) home buyers was 22%, while the share of “younger” millennials (1990-1998) and Gen Zers (1999-2011) were just 14% and 5%, respectively. And as Jim Reid, head of global macro research at Deutsche Bank pointed out in a note this week, 46% of homes purchased in 2024 were by those aged 60 and over.

Younger buyers struggling to break into the housing market

Historically, younger buyers have made up a much larger piece of the pie. The median age of a first-time home buyer was 28 years old in 1991. That jumped to 38 years old in 2024, according to NAR. And “rising home prices and high mortgage rates have pushed” the median age of home buyers to a record-high of 56 years old in 2024, up from 46 in 2021,” wrote Apollo Academy Chief Economist Torsten Sløk, citing NAR data.

That’s not a great omen for the American dream, which has long been regarded as owning a home. It’s typically the largest asset a person will buy in their lifetime and home equity can serve as a nice nest egg for future home purchases or cashing out after a sale. 

“Over the long run, property is an asset that ultimately gets redistributed from one generation to the next,” Reid wrote. 

But many members of the younger generations don’t have that opportunity. 

“Right now, that handoff is being stalled by high interest rates and elevated home prices,” Reid added. “At some point, either—or both—will have to adjust, or real wages for younger people will need to rise sharply.”

That’s another crux of the problem: Wages haven’t kept up with home prices. According to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, rents and house prices have been rising faster than incomes across most regions of the U.S.

As of April, Americans need to make about $114,000 to afford a median-priced home, according to Realtor.com, but the average salary for a person in the U.S. is only slightly more than half of that. 

The income needed to buy a home in the U.S. “remains significantly higher than before the [COVID-19] pandemic, underscoring the ongoing challenge of affordability even as market conditions gradually rebalance,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a statement.

While housing market conditions are grim for Gen Z and millennials, they’ll eventually break into the housing market, Reid suggested. 

“Eventually, the younger generation will own the homes currently held by the older generation,” he wrote. “We just don’t yet know what the price will be.”