Gen Zers and millennials are nearly equally likely to own cryptocurrency as they’re to own a home, in accordance to new knowledge from Policygenius’s 2024 Monetary Planning Survey revealed Tuesday.
With homebuying changing into increasingly unaffordable for many potential householders throughout the nation, a mean of simply 20% of Gen Z adults and millennials own a home, the survey discovered. That compares to 21% of respondents from those self same age teams, on common, who mentioned that they own crypto.
Cut up up even additional, simply 13% of Gen Z (outlined as aged 18 to 26 at this current time) own actual property, whereas 20% own cryptocurrency. In the meantime, 24% of millennials (aged 27 to 42) say they own actual property, whereas 22% own crypto.
Learn extra: Millennial and Gen Z ‘nepo-homebuyers’ are about to flood the housing market
(Policygenius commissioned YouGov to ballot 4,063 Individuals age 18 or older, from Oct. 16-19, 2023.)
This isn’t shocking given the strained U.S. housing market. Whereas for older generations, homeownership was a key milestone and considered one of their earliest (and largest) investments, that dream is out of attain for a lot of.
Home prices climbed 6.4% in February in contrast with a 12 months earlier, promoting for a median worth of $412,227, in accordance to Redfin. Mortgage charges, too, have stayed elevated nicely above pre-pandemic ranges as a results of the Federal Reserve financial institution’s inflation-fighting marketing campaign, which has left interest rates at a 23-year-high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.
The typical price on a 30-year mounted mortgage is hovering around 7%, caught at nearly double what it was simply 5 years in the past, in accordance to Bankrate’s weekly nationwide survey of huge lenders.
And in one other main generational divide between Gen Z and Baby Boomers, extra Gen Zers mentioned they own cryptocurrency quite than shares. In the meantime, simply 10% of Boomers (aged 59 to 77) reported proudly owning cryptocurrency and 27% own inventory.
But it surely’s not for lack of wanting. Practically two-thirds of Gen Z and millennials consider the inventory market is a great place to build wealth and invest, in accordance to the Youth & Cash within the USA ballot carried out by CNBC and Technology Lab in late January. However many merely don’t have sufficient financial savings or leftover money to make investments.
A examine by the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Richmond discovered that as folks become old, they tend to invest more and more of their cash within the inventory market. However with alternate options like crypto and non-fungible tokens, it’s additionally attainable that youthful generations will flip to different funding strategies even as they age.