Gen Zers and millennials are almost equally likely to own cryptocurrency as they are to own a home, according to new data from Policygenius’s 2024 Financial Planning Survey published Tuesday.
With homebuying becoming increasingly unaffordable for most prospective homeowners across the country, an average of just 20% of Gen Z adults and millennials own a home, the survey found. That compares to 21% of respondents from those same age groups, on average, who said that they own crypto.
Split up even further, just 13% of Gen Z (defined as aged 18 to 26 at this present time) own real estate, while 20% own cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, 24% of millennials (aged 27 to 42) say they own real estate, while 22% own crypto.
Read more: Millennial and Gen Z ‘nepo-homebuyers’ are about to flood the housing market
(Policygenius commissioned YouGov to poll 4,063 Americans age 18 or older, from Oct. 16-19, 2023.)
This is not surprising given the strained U.S. housing market. Whereas for older generations, homeownership was a key milestone and one of their earliest (and largest) investments, that dream is out of reach for many.
Home prices climbed 6.4% in February compared with a year earlier, selling for a median price of $412,227, according to Redfin. Mortgage rates, too, have stayed elevated well above pre-pandemic levels as a result of the Federal Reserve bank’s inflation-fighting campaign, which has left interest rates at a 23-year-high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is hovering around 7%, stuck at almost double what it was just five years ago, according to Bankrate’s weekly national survey of large lenders.
And in another major generational divide between Gen Z and Baby Boomers, more Gen Zers said they own cryptocurrency rather than stocks. Meanwhile, just 10% of Boomers (aged 59 to 77) reported owning cryptocurrency and 27% own stock.
But it’s not for lack of wanting. Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z and millennials believe the stock market is a great place to build wealth and invest, according to the Youth & Money in the USA poll carried out by CNBC and Generation Lab in late January. But many simply don’t have enough savings or leftover cash to invest.
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that as people get older, they tend to invest more and more of their money in the stock market. But with alternatives like crypto and non-fungible tokens, it’s also possible that younger generations will turn to other investment methods even as they age.