Young adults today are facing unprecedented challenges when it comes to entering the housing market, contending with barriers that are higher than ever and struggling to keep up with previous generations in terms of homeownership.
A January survey by real estate firm Redfin revealed that just 38.3 percent of 28-year-olds owned a home last year. This figure is notably lower compared to 42.5 percent of Generation X and 44.4 percent of baby boomers who owned homes at the same age.
“The general affordability of housing is a major obstacle, making homeownership seem unattainable for young adults,” Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, explained to The Hill on Wednesday.
Recently, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a report indicating a decline in homeownership rates from 2000 to 2023 across all age groups, from those aged 21-25 to those aged 66-70. This includes a 5.1 percent decrease among individuals aged 31-35 and a 5.4 percent drop for those aged 36-40.
While young Americans strive to secure homeownership, Congress is capitalizing on a surge of bipartisan support for a bill aimed at increasing the housing supply.
Here is what to know.
‘Window has closed’
Fairweather cited multiple reasons for why young adults are less likely to own a home than prior generations, including mortgage rates spiking over the last five years after falling to “record” lows during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thirty-year fixed mortgages averaged 6.3 percent as of Thursday, according to Freddie Mac. While that marks a decline of nearly 1.5 percentage points relative to late October 2023, it is still more than double rates at the end of 2021.
“That’s causing some of this frustration, that there was this short window for people to get into the housing market, if they could do so — if they lived somewhere affordable or they had a high income or they had help from parents,” Fairweather said.
“But now that window has closed and it’s really challenging.”
There are other contributing factors, such as a challenging job market for recent college graduates and increased rental costs. From 2020-24, renters paid $100 more per month to a median of $1,413, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Those higher costs, Fairweather noted, are prohibiting young adults from building up savings to afford an eventual downpayment on a home.
The barriers to entry are reflected in the data. The median age of first-time home buyers was 35 years old in 2025, down from a peak of 38 in 2018 but still older than the median of 31 in 2008, according to a Redfin analysis of Census data.
During a Democratic Women’s Caucus roundtable with young adult women on Thursday, Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) said that young adults “shouldn’t have to wait another 20 years to buy a home” after they get their first job.
How can lawmakers address the issue?
As for what policymakers can do to bring home prices down, Fairweather and other industry economists have emphasized the need to increase supply.
Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a Monday release that the inventory-to-sales ratio in the housing market is “below historical norms.”
He also noted that an additional “300,000 to 500,000 homes for sale” would bring the market “closer to normal conditions and allow consumers to make purchase decisions without feeling rushed.”
Fairweather said that “red tape” at the local level, including “onerous” permitting processes and restrictive zoning codes, are mostly to blame for these supply issues. Since homeowners benefit from a supply shortage and “are the ones showing up and blocking housing,” she recommended that states wrest regulatory control away from municipalities.
“It really helps to move that control from the local level at least to the state level,” Fairweather said. “It’s a bit difficult in our legal system to move it to the federal level, but the states need to step in and restrict how restrictive the local municipalities can get.”
Senate passes housing bill, House takes it up again
Last month, the Senate took a bipartisan step to tackle housing supply issues.The upper chamber passed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bill spearheaded by
Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Banking, House and Urban Affairs Committee, by a 89 to 10 vote.
That came just more than a month after the House overwhelming passed its version of the bill, sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.). Since the Senate made amendments to the bill before passing it, the measure went back to the lower chamber for a still-unscheduled floor vote.
If enacted, the legislation would streamline the regulatory process for building new homes and launch a program to provide grants and loans for needed home repairs, among other provisions.
Scott said on the Senate floor the day the bill passed that it would “restore hope for so many people who want to just experience their version of the American dream, which is so consistently homeownership.”
After it succeeded, Warren said the bill is “designed to help increase housing supply and bring down costs” to boost homeownership.
Before it passed in the upper chamber, the White House said it “strongly supports” the bill and President Trump’s advisors “would recommend that he sign it into law” if presented to him in its current form.
A spokesperson for the House Financial Services Committee that talks “remain ongoing” between House leadership and Democrats on a path forward and the House continues to engage with the Senate.”
The spokesperson added, “Getting a housing bill to President Trump’s desk remains a priority.”
