Survey: 87% of Gen Z Believes Homeownership is Key to Building Wealth, Yet Many Feel Shut Out

Most of Generation Z want to be homeowners, but feel it’s inaccessible for them, according to a new survey from Arrived¹, the first SEC-qualified real estate investing platform that allows anyone to buy shares in single-family and vacation rental homes.

Gen Z largely finds homeownership to be valuable, financially and emotionally. A vast majority (87.2 percent) of Gen Zers surveyed said homeownership is important when it comes to building wealth, and almost 2 in 3 (65 percent) say it’s personally important to them to own a home. Rather than seeing it as a symbol of success, financial security and stability were tied as the top two reasons why Gen Z wants to own a home, with 65 percent of Gen Z respondents who want to buy a home citing each of these factors as their main motivation.

However, only 25.2 percent of people under 25 currently own their home, according to Census data². High home prices are the main reason why building wealth through real estate seems so unattainable for younger generations. Nearly 80 percent of Gen Zers said high home prices are their biggest barrier to entering the housing market. That’s understandable, given ongoing increases in home prices nationwide: since the oldest members of Gen Z entered adulthood in 2014, home prices have increased 58.7 percent³.

With traditional homeownership being hard to reach, some Gen Zers say they prefer to invest their money in other ways. The survey found that, among Gen Zers who don’t personally find being a homeowner important, 54.5 percent of them said it was because there are more profitable ways to build wealth.

“Coming of age amid skyrocketing home prices and pandemic-era economic turbulence has given some of Gen Z financial whiplash, particularly when it comes to owning a home,” said Cameron Wu, VP of Investments at Arrived. “There’s this common perception that owning a home is just not something that young people can do. This is one of the key reasons we launched Arrived, to create ways for people to invest in real estate at any price point. And it’s working – 58% of Arrived users born after the year 2000 get started with an investment of just $100, helping them grow their wealth and invest in real estate without having to scrimp and save for a down payment that gets more expensive with every passing year.”

Through fractional real estate ownership, Arrived offers individuals who want to tap into the financial benefits of real estate investing – but may be blocked by the high barrier for entry – a way to participate in the market. As a result, Arrived users are seeing returns on their investments. In Q2 2023, investors using Arrived earned more than $790,000 in dividend income, an increase of approximately $190,000 from Q1 2023, with annualized yields from rental income ranging from 2.0 percent to 6.9 percent on single-family residential properties and 2.0 percent to 10.1 percent on vacation rentals. Long term, Arrived users also participate in home price appreciation once the property is sold.

Visit Arrived to see the full report, along with additional resources such as their beginner’s guide to real estate investing.