Conventional methods of measuring home ownership may be significantly overstating ownership levels among millennials amid the challenges this group faces.

This becomes especially important because millennials remain well behind previous generations when it comes to owning homes, according to new research from Apartment List. Even though, numerically, millennials buy more houses than other groups, the homeownership rate for those born between 1981-1996, stood at 45.5% using the Census Bureau's conventional estimate in its 2023 Current Population Survey.

By comparison, the homeownership rate was 70% for "the silent generation" (born between 1928-1945), 74% for Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), and 65% for Gen X (born 1965-1980).