Americans of All Ages Find Value in Homeownership

Since the start of the pandemic two years ago, home prices have risen by 29 percent. With historically low levels of for-sale inventory available, prospective homebuyers are currently competing more fiercely than at any other point in recent memory. 

Despite these challenges, a majority of Americans still feel that homeownership is an important goal worth striving for, but these attitudes vary by generation. In Apartment List’s most recent survey, it finds that Baby Boomers are nearly twice as likely as members of Gen Z to rate the importance of homeownership at 10 out of 10.

It also finds broad agreement that buying a home is no easy task—a majority of the survey respondents rated the difficulty of achieving homeownership at 8 or higher, with Millennials having the most pessimistic views. And unfortunately, few expect the situation to improve. 67 percent of Americans think that it will get more difficult to achieve homeownership over the next decade, while just 14 percent expect it to get easier.

Homeownership Equates to Success

Homeownership has long been considered a core component of the traditional “American Dream,” leading to an ingrained view that purchasing a home is a key marker of success. Apartment List finds that it is still common for Americans of all ages to equate homeownership with success, but that this conviction is less strong for younger generations.

Overall, nearly two-in-three respondents rated the importance of homeownership to define their personal success at an eight or higher on a scale of 1-10, while only one-in-ten gave a rating of three or less.

Across all generations, the share of respondents who view homeownership as important significantly outweighs those who consider it unimportant. 

Notably, Baby Boomers are most likely to include homeownership in their personal definition of success, with 45 percent ranking the importance of homeownership as a ten out of ten. 

This is even higher than the share among the older Silent Generation. Baby Boomers were raised during the period of rapid suburbinazation following World War II, when ample new housing supply and readily available financing made homeownership more attainable than it had ever been before. Baby Boomers came of age at the same time that homeownership was becoming synonymous with the American Dream, and this is still reflected in their present-day views, Apartment List said. 

For each generation younger than the Baby Boomers, the share who place the highest importance on homeownership gradually wanes. Among Gen Z, just 23 percent ranked the importance of homeownership at ten, roughly half the rate among Baby Boomers. 

Many members of Gen Z are still years away from actively pursuing homeownership, and so their attitudes may shift over time. However, it’s also worth noting that most Millennials are in their prime homebuying years, and they also have more ambivalent views of homeownership’s importance compared to the generations that preceded them.

Homeownership ‘No Simple Task’

Despite the perceived importance of homeownership, the survey also finds broad consensus that actually achieving that goal is no simple task. 

When asked, “On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it for the average American family to afford and purchase a home?” across the full sample, 10 was again the most common response. 

More than half of respondents rated the difficulty of purchasing a home at 8 or higher, while just four percent of respondents rated it at 3 or lower. 

Here too, though, there are clear differences in the views of different generations, with older Americans tending to have a rosier view of how attainable home ownership is currently for the average American.

Over the past two decades, the housing market has boomed, busted, and boomed again. For the younger generations of Americans who came of age amid this turmoil, they have been left with a sense that homeownership is both further out of reach, and less sure of bet than it was for the generations that preceded them. 

Apartment List’s survey finds evidence of these shifting attitudes, but also confirms that homeownership is still widely valued by Americans of all ages. However, despite valuing homeownership, there is also broad pessimism about the future of the housing market.