As affordability challenges in the housing market have worsened in recent years, a trend has emerged: It’s becoming increasingly difficult for young people to buy houses.
In fact, just 29% of homebuyers are millennials, between the ages of 26 and 44, despite that generation making up the largest share of the U.S. population, according to an April report from the National Association of Realtors.
Now, a new survey from consumer finance website, SmartAsset, has revealed where millennials are buying homes by reviewing mortgage and population data from 2024.
At the top of the list: Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina, where 4.5% of millennials purchased a home and nearly 20,000 millennials originated a mortgage in 2024.
Other metropolitans topping the list include Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The metropolitan area had just shy of 7,000 millennial mortgage applications, and about 0.5% of millennial residents purchased a home in 2024.
Other cities that ranked among the worst for millennial buyers include New York; Miami; Philadelphia; and Los Angeles.
Given that millennials are considered prime working age, their homebuying activity can serve as an indicator for broader economic prosperity, according to Jaclyn DeJohn, director of economic analysis at SmartAsset.
“With many Millennials at the peak of their earning potential, local tax bases, housing markets, and more may also be impacted by such trends,” she wrote in the report. “Observed from another angle, high rates of millennials investing in homes in an area may indicate prosperity in the job market, paired with a friendly housing market and economy."