Seeking a more accurate picture of homeownership rates in America, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has developed a new method of calculating homeownership. The “homeowners-to-population ratio” (HPOP) considers the status of each individual adult instead of considering each housing unit. The problem with the older way of calculating is that it doesn’t account for the social trends that explain the way Americans are living today.

As young Americans delay adulthood by moving back in with their parents after graduating college, one effect is that statistics on homeownership rates appear deceptively high. Property ownership as typically calculated treated each home as a single datapoint. Imagine a house owned by two parents. Their son and daughter both return home after graduation. But because the owners reside in-house rather than renting it out, the home is designated as a 100 percent “owner-occupied unit.” Thus, even though two of the four adult residents are not homeowners, the statistics do not consider that those two adults do not own a home.

In this house, mom and dad are homeowners, while the two adult children just live there, thereby yielding a 50 percent homeownership rate under the new HPOP metric. When this correction is applied across the country, we see that the true number of Americans who own homes is much lower than we had originally thought. 

While the nationwide homeownership rate is reported at 65 percent, the HPOP number is only 53 percent. For young adults, the situation is even worse. On paper, 37 percent of adults under 35 were said to be homeowners in 2024. When adjusted for HPOP, the rate drops to just 22 percent. Homeownership is increasingly less common for Gen-Z and younger millennials. In just the past two decades, the percentage of young adults who own homes has fallen by a full eight points. Since its peak in 1980, the young adult homeownership rate has been cut in half.

Traditional homeownership metrics are inflated primarily because more adult children are remaining in their childhood homes. A 2026 study found that a third of adults under 35 live with their parents. Though college-aged Gen-Zers make up a solid portion of this group, young millennials are also included. Nearly 13 percent of Americans aged 30-34 live with their parents, up from 7 percent in 2004. 

Skyrocketing home prices are no doubt one reason young people are failing to move out. But high housing costs are not the end of the story. As a bachelor’s degree being almost universally required to obtain a white-collar job, more Americans are attending college than ever before. Yet higher education has never been a worse financial investment. Accounting for inflation, the average cost of university attendance has risen 169 percent since 1980, while entry-level salaries have only increased 19 percent. Racked with record-high debt without corresponding high-paying jobs, many young graduates are forced to put potential down payment savings toward their student loan balances. 

Social trends also contribute to low homeownership rates. Young people are getting married less often and, even when they do, it is often much later in life. In 1950, for every 1000 unmarried women, there were 90.2 new marriages per year. In 2022, the number was only 31.3. Those who choose to get married are doing so at much older ages than previous generations. The median American woman gets married eight years later than in 1960. Men have seen a similar shift, with the average age of first marriage jumping from 22.8 to 30.5. 

The decline in marriage harms young adult HPOP rates in two ways. First, homeownership is less accessible to the unmarried. When two people get married, they can pool money together and build equity in a single home instead of needing to purchase separate residences. Unmarried individuals have less purchasing power and higher housing expenditures than those in dual-income unions. Second, marriage provides a strong incentive to purchase a home. Consider a young, employed bachelor living at his parents’ house. Even though he could afford to buy his own home, he chooses to stay with his parents so he can have more discretionary income. But if that bachelor finds a wife, acquiring a private space to live will become a top priority. Without the social responsibilities that often accompany marriage, Gen-Zers and young millennials are content living with parents well into their 30s. 

The Federal Reserve’s insightful report on homeownership is more than a reflection on a bad housing market. It is a revelation that the institutions which were once meant to help young Americans prosper are now setting them up for failure. The university has turned from a pathway to upward mobility to a debt-producing credential mill. Marriage has shifted from the foundation of young life to a mid-career luxury. Homeownership in our nation is not impossible or even rare. But for my generation, the road to the American Dream is longer than ever.