Millennials have been long dubbed the “Generation of Renters,” but that’s history as they’ve finally achieved a sought-after milestone: owning a home.

According to RentCafe’s latest study, Millennials are now officially a homeowner majority generation. That’s because a record-breaking 7 million people in this age group managed to get a foot on the housing ladder in the last five years. This spectacular growth — bigger than in any other generation — reverberates at a metro level: More than one-quarter of the 110 largest metros saw the number of Millennial owners double between 2017 and 2022.

Still, Baby Boomers remain the largest homeowner (and homebuying, according to the latest NAR report) generation — meanwhile, on the renting side, Millennials are in the lead for the largest number of apartment dwellers nationwide.

Read on for more interesting findings extracted from the most recent IPUMS data:

  • Currently, there are 18 million Millennial owners in the U.S., accounting for 52% of the total Millennial households nationwide. Back in 2017, Millennial owners totaled around 11 million, while the share of Millennial owners was much lower, at 35%.
  • Better late than never. Millennials became a homeowner-majority generation in 2022 at an average age of 34 — later than Gen Xers at 32 in 2003 or Boomers at 33 in 1987. This confirms once again the challenges Millennials have faced in their quest toward homeownership as well as their different take on owning a property.
  • Even pricey metro areas saw a surge in Millennial homeownership. In New York and Seattle, the number of Millennial owners jumped by almost 90%, more than any other generation, while in Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia this number increased by more than 70%.

  • But perhaps the most surprising local trend we noticed is that Millennial owners have actually more than doubled in five years in some large metro areas including Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio and Orlando, to name a few.
  • What about renters? While most generations saw a decrease in the number of renters — with the largest drop recorded among Gen X and Millennials — Gen Z has become a significant market segment for apartment builders. This generation has gained nearly 4.5 million renters since 2017, reaching 5.6 million renter households in 2022.

The full report with a complete generational overview of the largest metros in the U.S. can be found HERE.

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