Millenials Have Begun to Play Homeownership Catch-Up

In this edition of Housing Insights, Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group examines the young-adult homeownership rate change for both age groups and birth cohorts.

Recent data continue to show moderate declines in the homeownership rate for young adults, but an analysis of change by age group provides only limited insight into the dynamic nature of homeownership. Valuable perspective can also be gained by tracking homeownership changes for birth cohorts in addition to age groups. That is, in addition to comparing the same age group with different people at two points in time, it’s important to track change for the same group of people as they grow older and pass from one age group to the next. In this study, the cohort analysis shows that homeownership rate gains for young adults aging through their late twenties and early thirties actually accelerated during the early housing recovery. This suggests the oldest Millennials have begun to mount a homeownership recovery and close the homeownership attainment gap with their predecessors.

Read our latest edition of Housing Insights and hear from the author, Patrick Simmons, in his related FM Commentary.