Gen Z is burdened by rent. That doesn’t bode well for its future wealth
If you know someone between the ages of 18 and 25, chances are they are “rent burdened,” meaning they spend at least 30% of their pre-tax income on housing.
That was true of 58% of the people in that age group in 2022, according to a new analysis out from Zillow. That’s better than millennials had it when they were in that same age bracket, but not by much: 12 years ago, 60% of young adults were rent burdened.
The weight of a rent burden might change a bit year-to-year, but the main culprit has been around for decades, said Senior Economist Kenny Lee of Zillow and StreetEasy.
“The historical under supply of rental housing is really the problem,” Lee said.
Millennials had it worse because they came of age around the time of a housing market crash. Rent burdened young adults peaked in 2011, and everything was getting better, until 2020 happened.
“The surging renter demand since the pandemic really reversed this trend, which led to soaring rents and inventory shortages, really making it difficult for local housing markets to catch up with this demand,” Lee said.
Now, at the same time that was happening, household wealth was increasing. Just not equally.
John Campbell teaches financial accounting at the University of Georgia. He said there are two main ways to increase wealth:
“You’re either a homeowner or you have money in the stock market. And if you’re at this level of 18 to 25, you’re neither of those things,” Campbell said.
Meanwhile, housing prices have just kept going up since 2022, which is as far as this study went.
“I would guess if you went out to 24 it wouldn’t be better. It’d probably be worse,” Campbell said.
If you pay a lot in rent, you save less. Jordan Levine, chief economist at the California Association of Realtors, said if you save less, “it prevents you from building up that down payment, getting into that first home, then that forever home, or whatever.”
And the longer these young adults are renting — and rent-burdened — the wider the wealth gap becomes. Levine said the big fix is increasing the supply of starter homes.
“We just need to make sure that we’re facilitating all of that amazing growth with the right amount of housing,” Levine said.
And he’s feeling hopeful, because at least now, he said there’s finally consensus in the industry that the way to build more homeownership is to build more homes.