Baby Boomers Own More Large Homes Than Millennials With Kids

Baby Boomers own the largest share of housing stock in the U.S., but they also own the largest homes. Baby Boomers living in one- to two-adult households own 28% of homes with three or more bedrooms in the U.S. By comparison, Millennials with children living at home own 16% of those houses, and Generation Z owns just 1% of these homes, according to a recent survey from real estate marketing platform Redfin.

What’s causing this mismatch to occur?

More than one-quarter, or about 28%, of Millennials say they aren’t buying a home right now because of high mortgage rates. Many Millennials are renters or are in starter homes that they purchased prior to mortgage rate spikes in the 2020s. Additionally, 20% of Millennials say they aren’t buying  a bigger home right now because they’re unable to save for a down payment. A smaller share—13% and 6%, respectively—say they aren’t buying right now because they enjoy the flexibility of renting and because they don’t want to put effort into maintaining a home.

Empty-nesters own more large homes than Millennials with kids in every major metro

Empty-nesters own more large homes than Millennials with children in every major U.S. metro, but the share of Millennials in large homes is higher in some cities than others. The generation owns the largest share of homes with three or more bedrooms in Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio. In both cities, the share of Millennials in large homes is 19.2%. Meanwhile, Millennials with kids own the smallest share of large homes in Los Angeles, where they own just 10.5% of them, followed by Miami at 12.5%, and then San Jose, Calif., at 13.1%.

On the other hand, empty-nester Baby Boomers take up the biggest share of large homes in Memphis, Tenn., where they own 31.2% of the metro’s three-bedroom-plus homes. This city is followed by Cleveland, where empty nesters own 30.9% of the metro’s large homes, and Pittsburgh, where they own 30.6% of large homes. Salt Lake City has the smallest share of empty-nester Baby Boomers. The share in Salt Lake City sits at just 20.1%, followed by Riverside, Calif., at 21.4%, and Austin, Texas, at 22%.