1 day ago
The younger generation still hungers to buy a home.
A study by Rent Cafe showed Gen Z buyers between the ages of 20 and 29 have not been locked out of the housing market.
Doug Ressler is the Business Intelligence Manager for Yardi Matrix.
"Well, the first thing we found that kind of surprised us was the fact that the number of homebuyers in their twenties is increasing," he said. "We thought they were pretty much, you know, related to the fact that they would be buying later."
The study rated Fresno as a "hot spot," with the highest share of Gen Z homeowners in California at 24%.
Basically, 1 in 4 Gen Z adults in Fresno owns a home.
Ressler cited the contrast between rent growth and wage growth. Home prices haven't risen in the Valley the way they have on the Central Coast.
"What we saw is a gap started to widen that allowed Gen Z-ers to actually buy because the prices of homes did not skyrocket as they did in coastal areas, but wages were pretty robust," he said.
Fresno beat out Bakersfield for the largest share of Gen Z homeowners.
The study did not show whether young people were buying a home together to share costs, but the Valley is clearly an exception to the rule.
"I think the average age to buy a home right now is somewhere around 38-39 years old, so we were a little bit surprised that they were buying homes in the 20s," Ressler said. "Maybe they're going to the bank of mom and dad, I don't know."
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