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Faculty of Social Sciences

Is homeownership out of reach for Gen Z?

April 27, 2026

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Sehaj Vij is a 4th year honours economics student, her thesis "Why has homeownership become disproportionately inaccessible for young Americans," examines the barriers to homeownership for Generation Z. Note: the data used was for America, however, many of the findings can be applied to Canada.

Q1. What was your motivation to undertake this research topic?

SV: I wanted to look at the affordability crisis this generation faced, particularly the decline in homeownership among young adults because it is a topic that felt personal to my generation. What interested me most was seeing that this is not just a personal concern, but a larger economic issue affecting many people in my generation. I wanted to look beyond the general idea that housing is expensive and examine whether income differences between younger and older age groups help explain why younger households are struggling to enter the housing market. 

Q.2 Why has home ownership become less attainable for young people?

SV: There are a number of reasons why homeownership has become less attainable. Through my research, I found that young adults are facing high underemployment, meaning that even university-educated and qualified people are often working in jobs below their skill level, which pays less. Wage growth has also been slower, so incomes have not kept up with rising housing costs. Young people are also spending more years in education, which can delay full-time earnings and add student debt. Together, these factors make it harder to save for a down payment, qualify for a mortgage, and be financially ready to buy a home.

Q.3 Are older buyers responsible for crowding out younger cohorts?

SV: Overall, my research suggests that older buyers may be part of the broader housing affordability problem, but the lack of statistical significance shows there is not strong evidence that they are the direct main cause. My research results showed that as income for older households increases, younger homeownership tends to decrease, which matches my original hypothesis. However, because the result was not statistically significant, the relationship was not strong enough in the data to confidently say that older buyers are directly crowding out younger buyers. Existing literature still suggests that older households may contribute to the issue in other ways, such as staying in their homes longer or downsizing into smaller homes, which can keep housing supply off the market.

Q.4 What is the takeaway from your research?

SV: This paper looked at whether income from older households is connected to lower homeownership for younger households. The results show that the younger group’s own income matters the most. When young people have higher incomes, they are more likely to own homes. For the younger group, older-cohort income had a negative coefficient, which means it went in the direction of my original crowding-out idea.

However, the result was not statistically significant, so the paper does not provide strong evidence that older buyers are directly pushing younger buyers out of the housing market. One limitation is that incomes for different age groups move together over time. Because young and older incomes are highly connected, it is hard to separate the exact effect of older-cohort income on younger homeownership.

Overall, the main takeaway is that declining homeownership among young people is mostly explained by weaker affordability within their own age group, rather than clear evidence that older buyers are the direct cause. Future research could use more detailed data to better test whether older buyers affect younger buyers’ ability to own homes.