Number of Phoenix Millennial Homeowners Jumps 66% in Last 5 Years

Article originally posted on AZ Big Media on April 11, 2023

Millennials make history — not only did they add the highest number of homeowners among all the other generations, but they did it in record time. In just 5 years, 7 million Millennials bought a place to call their own. This spectacular growth led to a historic shift: Millennials became a homeowner-majority generation, with a 52% share. This translates into a total of 18 million Millennial homeowners nationwide, according to the latest RentCafe study that looks at renting and ownership trends by generation across the U.S.

Phoenix mirrors the national trend. In fact, all generations in this metro saw an increase in homeownership, with Millennials taking a big leap into homeownership majority.

Here are the highlights:

• The number of Millennial homeowners in Phoenix increased by 66% in just 5 years, totaling 265,000 households, as opposed to 160,000 households in 2017. Baby Boomers’ ownership increased by 16%, surpassing half a million homes, while Gen X comes second, with around 370,000 households.

• The majority of Millennials in Phoenix now own a home, with 53% of them reaching this milestone. However, Baby Boomers remain the generation with the highest share of homeownership in the area (80%).

• What about renting? Despite a 14% drop, Millennials remain the largest group of renters, almost twice more than any other generation. In fact, all the older generations saw a decrease in the number of renters — up to 26% in the case of Gen X. On the other hand, Zoomer renters more than doubled and are now the renter-majority generation in Phoenix.