Which Generation Is Struggling the Most to Buy a Home?
Scrimping and saving to come up with a down payment is no easy feat, especially when aspiring buyers have student loan debt, high rents, and soaring property prices to contend with. But millennials who are most likely to face those hurdles aren’t the generation having the hardest time saving up for a new home, a recent report finds. Instead, it’s Generation X.
The National Association of Realtors® report is based on about 4,000 responses received from non-homeowners in surveys performed each month in 2017.
Gen Xers “are at an age where they may have children, car loans, credit card debt,” says Jessica Lautz, NAR’s managing director of survey research. “They’re also less likely to be able to move back home [with their parents] to pay down debt.”
About 47% of Generation X respondents said they were having difficulty saving up for a down payment. That’s compared with 23% of millennials.
“They were very likely to have purchased a home in the housing boom and then be hit by the housing bust,” says Lautz. “Generation Xers were most likely to have a home that was underwater.”
