Baby boomers bought more homes than millennials did last year

For previous generations, the pillars of “the American Dream” were clear-cut: having a steady job, buying a home, maybe starting a family. Today, though, with house prices still soaring and mortgage rates continuing to inch up, the milestone of becoming a homeowner has faded into fantasy for scores of young people.

Despite many millennials entering the prime home-buying years of their life, the 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that baby boomers accounted for 42% of all home buyers in the past year, surpassing millennials at 29% — with the latter generation’s share down from 38% for the previous year.

Part of the reason might be that those older cohorts were able to skip the mortgage market entirely. Indeed, boomer buyers are increasingly purchasing homes entirely with cash, with half of older boomers (70 to 78 years old) and 40% of younger boomers (60 to 69 years old) bypassing financing altogether. The cash pile that boomers have built in the years leading up to retirement has now set them up to buy larger, plusher homes, while at the same time leading the housing sellers market (53% total share).

Without rehashing the tired generational arguments about avocado toast — there’s actually evidence that younger generations are pretty decent at saving — it’s worth exploring exactly where America’s wealth is concentrated.

Million-dollar boomers

Data from the Federal Reserve confirms an age split in the US economy: at the end of Q4 2024, baby boomers owned about 51% of all household wealth in the US, while millennials accounted for ~10% and Gen Xers held a little over a quarter.

At first glance, this may seem intuitive. Millennials are still in the midst of their working life, and have likely only just started to accrue significant incomes or assets like houses. However, in context, the oldest millennial turned 43 last year (born 1981). By the end of 1989, the year the oldest baby boomer had turned 43, their generation had a ~20% share of wealth, roughly double the eldest millennial’s portion today.

Sitting between millennials and boomers, Gen X was the highest-earning age group of home buyers last year, per the NAR report, with a median income of ~$130,000. However, the so-called “sandwich generation” is still feeling the squeeze, since many from this cohort are now looking to buy properties with enough room for the whole family.

More American homes today have multiple generations under the same roof, with a record 17% of all home buyers purchasing a multigenerational home in 2024, up from 14% the year before, according to NAR data cited by Bloomberg.

And it’s Gen X in particular that’s burdened with buying homes big enough for households spanning different age groups, with 21% of this cohort purchasing multigenerational homes — citing the need to take care of aging parents, as well as accommodating adult children that either never left home or are moving back, as major reasons why.