According to a report from First American, young adults are the missing gap in first-time homebuyers. Nearly half of 20-to 24-year-olds still lived with their parents in 2025. Only about 25% of 25-to 29-year-olds owned their homes.
The reality is that homeownership is arriving later in life for young adults, with the delay often originating at moving out of their childhood homes.
Young adults are moving through traditional markers of adulthood, such as moving out, work, marriage and children, on a different timeline than previous generations. As those milestones shift, the housing sequence that often follows, moving out, renting and buying, also shifts.
Most young adults are still renting. While today’s renters are likely to become tomorrow’s buyer, that “tomorrow” is happening later in life. The reasons for this vary between affordability challenges, as well as other life milestones that have shifted into the later years, such as school, work or family.
