Introduction

Since the start of the pandemic two years ago, home prices have risen by 29 percent. With historically low levels of for-sale inventory available, prospective homebuyers are currently competing more fiercely than at any other point in recent memory. Despite these challenges, a majority of Americans still feel that homeownership is an important goal worth striving for, but these attitudes vary by generation. In our most recent survey, we find that Baby Boomers are nearly twice as likely as members of Gen Z to rate the importance of homeownership at 10 out of 10.1

We also find broad agreement that buying a home is no easy task – a majority of our survey respondents rated the difficulty of achieving homeownership at 8 or higher, with Millennials having the most pessimistic views. And unfortunately, few expect the situation to improve. 67 percent of Americans think that it will get more difficult to achieve homeownership over the next decade, while just 14 percent expect it to get easier.