Millennial homeowners outnumber renters for the first time

Millennial homeowners outnumbered millennial renters for the first time last year, despite creeping interest rates and a tight real estate market.

Driving the news: Nearly 52% of the first generation to grow up in the Internet age ​​— people born from 1981 to 1996 — were homeowners in 2022, making the largest ownership gains of any generation in the last five years, according to a new RentCafe report.

By the numbers: The number of millennial homeowners increased by 7.1 million between 2017 and 2022 to 18.2 million, a 64% increase.

There are still 17.2 million millennial renters, which is still considered the dominant renter generation, RentCafe found.

The average millennial bought their first home at 34, slightly older than the average age of past generations, when boomers took the keys at 33 and Gen X at 32.