We Found the Missing First-Time Buyers—They’re Still Living at Home

Sam Williamson is Senior Economist with First American.

June is Homeownership Month, so one question looms large: where have all the first-time buyers gone? Homeownership has long marked a major step toward independence in the U.S. But fewer people are reaching that milestone in their 20s and early 30s. Among adults ages 25 to 34 — the age when many first-time buyers historically have entered the market — the share of young adults who are homeowners fell from 42 percent in 2000 to 32 percent in 2025.

This delay hasn’t happened in a vacuum. Young adults are moving through traditional markers of adulthood — moving out, work, marriage and children — on a different timetable than earlier generations. As those milestones shift, the housing sequence that often follows — moving out, renting and, later, buying — shifts with them.

To better understand how the path to first-time homeownership has changed, we traced the housing status of young adults across 35 years of U.S. Census Bureau data, from 1990 through 2025. The findings point to an important shift: many of today’s “missing” first-time buyers aren’t waiting on the sidelines of the housing market. Instead, they are delaying household formation altogether by living with parents longer, pushing the transition into renting — and in turn owning a home further out.

Ages 20 to 24: Leaving Home Comes Later

To see how the timeline has shifted, it helps to start at the beginning of the housing journey: leaving home. For adults ages 20 to 24, buying a home has historically been rare, but the steps that precede it are changing. In 2025, nearly half lived with parents, up from 43 percent in 2000. Over the same period, the renter share fell from 30 percent to 24 percent, while the owner share remained in the single digits. This shift matters because more young adults are delaying the move into independent living, pushing the path to homeownership further out.

Ages 25 to 29: Still Getting Settled

By their late 20s, renting becomes the dominant housing status, with about four in ten adults ages 25 to 29 renting throughout the 1990-to-2025 period. But that stability masks a change beneath the surface: with fewer adults renting in their early 20s, the late 20s renter pool now skews newer to independent living. That leaves less runway to build the track record that often precedes buying—rental history, savings, credit stability and the life-stage footing that supports a first purchase.

At the same time, the move out step has not fully caught up. In 2025, 21 percent of adults ages 25 to 29 lived with parents, up from 14 percent in 2000. These delays also show up in the owner share: even after a modest pandemic era rebound, just 24 percent owned their homes in 2025, down from 32 percent in 2000.

Ages 30 to 34: The Buyer Backlog Builds

By their early 30s, owning remains the largest category, but its lead has narrowed. In 2025, 41 percent of adults ages 30 to 34 owned their homes, down from 52 percent in 2000. Over the same period, the renter share ticked up from 34 percent to 38 percent.

By this age, most young adults have already formed households. But more are renters and fewer are owners than at the start of the century, leaving a larger share of potential first-time buyers concentrated in the rental market.

Finding the Keys to Unlock Young-Adult Homeownership

Today’s renters may become tomorrow’s buyers, but tomorrow is arriving later in life. Some of that delay is structural, as school, work, and family milestones have shifted later into adulthood. But there are still opportunities to unlock pent-up ownership demand, especially among renters in their early 30s who have already formed households.

For that group, affordability matters more directly. Lower mortgage rates, slower price growth, stronger incomes and a greater supply of attainable entry-level homes could make the transition from renting to owning more achievable. For younger adults still living at home, improving housing conditions may first show up as stronger rental household formation before eventually translating into future first-time buyer demand.

(Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect policies of the Mortgage Bankers Association, nor do they connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. MBA NewsLink welcomes submissions from member firms. Inquiries can be sent to Editor Michael Tucker or Editorial Manager Anneliese Mahoney.)