Election 2024: All Gen Zers Want Is Housing They Can Afford

Wednesday, 16 October 2024

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The housing affordability crisis isn't just a minor talking point in this year's presidential election. It's a major economic problem for young voters like me. More than nine out of 10 Gen Zers say housing affordability is their top voting concern, outranking issues like education and abortion rights, according to a survey from Redfin.

Although high mortgage rates, rising home prices and an undersupply of affordable houses affect homebuyers across all generations, an inaccessible housing market is a particularly acute question for my generation. Owning a home represents a path toward long-term financial stability and wealth. Yet for most of us, the prospect of homeownership feels like a long shot.

"Gen Z is aging into their renting and early homebuying years at a time when housing is historically expensive," said Brittany Webb, director of research at the National Housing Conference. "That has made them painfully aware of the impact housing has on their lives."

It's also led to apathy among younger generations, who watch economic headwinds come one after another. Homeownership can feel like an impossibility unless you have the benefit of generational wealth and guidance, said Webb.

Today's housing market isn't the same one our parents and grandparents experienced. As Gen Zers enter their adult years, they're also dealing with high debt burdens, insecure employment and sluggish wage growth. Those factors are made worse by the increased cost of consumer goods and services, aka inflation.

Many young voters are new to the workforce and spend the majority of their paychecks on rent, making it difficult to pay off student debt, much less save enough money to buy a house. More than half of adult Gen Zers say they can't afford to live the life they want, with the high cost of living making them financially dependent on others.

Likewise, an increasing number of young adults are turning to live with family. According to recent census data, almost half of zoomers aged 18 to 29 still live with their parents, the highest level since the Great Depression.

Ronald Carter, who works as a general contractor in Tacoma, Washington, told me he feels pressure to buy a house but can't even afford a starter home, which costs upward of $300,000. "I make good money but I'd need to be working 80-hour weeks to make that happen," said Carter.

Like many others, Carter finds it challenging to afford monthly rent payments, which have increased by more than 30% since 2019, according to Zillow. Meanwhile, wages only grew 20% for the same period.

"When I graduated high school, you could find a two-bedroom apartment for $1,000 to $1,500 a month," Carter said. Now, it's closer to $2,200 a month. Carter told me he and his peers have had to make difficult trade-offs to compensate. "You either pay rent and then your utilities or your phone gets turned off -- or you pay the utilities and phone bill so you're late on rent," said Carter.

Many financial analysts would argue that the economy is robust. On paper, unemployment is relatively low, wages are increasing and inflation is cooling.

Yet today's housing affordability crisis is a more accurate reflection of how younger generations view the economy. Because housing is typically our biggest monthly expense, it affects our ability to pay for anything else, including food and healthcare. When there's no room left in your budget each month, saving tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment feels insurmountable.

What the presidential election means for housing affordability

Housing affordability has long been a major issue in the US, particularly for the lowest-income Americans, but it rarely takes center stage in presidential elections. However, the surge in mortgage rates and home prices since the pandemic means the crisis is affecting a broader set of voters, particularly middle-class households.

In recent months, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have proposed lowering housing costs. Both candidates have commented on the long-running housing supply shortage, which experts agree is a factor in today's housing affordability crisis.

One reason home prices have increased so dramatically over the past few decades is that not enough houses are being built to keep up with demand. Expensive land and construction costs, as well as strict zoning and land-usage laws, limit where and what types of homes are built, said Doug McCoy, director of the Center on Real Estate Studies at Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

"Housing affordability is a really important part of public policy and part of the American Dream, as well. But I think that's kind of gotten lost," McCoy said.

Specifically, there's a critical lack of affordable housing being built in areas where people want to live, said Webb. "Even as we sought to increase housing production in recent years, we were not being intentional about building smaller, more affordable homes," she said.

For her part, Harris said she promises to build 3 million new homes by offering a first-of-its-kind tax incentive for builders focused on first-time buyers, as well as extending existing incentives for affordable rental housing construction. On the demand side, Harris said she would provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

Trump, on the other hand, has said his controversial immigration policies (like mass deportations) will help the housing shortage. He also proposed increasing inventory by opening portions of federally owned land (something Harris has also suggested) for large-scale housing construction and reducing zoning and environmental regulations that restrict housing supply.

Right now, both plans are merely campaign rhetoric. No president, regardless of who's elected, can change zoning laws, which are decided on the local and state levels. The federal government could, however, influence the direction of those policies via tax incentives or other funding.

"It's not that addressing housing affordability is difficult. It's just that it hasn't been a priority," said McCoy. Crafting, strengthening and implementing effective housing policies won't happen overnight, particularly with a divided Congress.

"It took us a long time to get here and it will take us a long time to get out," said Webb.

Homebuying advice for Gen Zers, from Gen Zers

Plenty of us still want to ride what's considered to be America's wealth escalator: establishing financial security and generational wealth through home equity. But over the last roughly three decades, the median wealth gap between homeowners and renters has increased by 70%. If housing doesn't become more affordable, that gap will only widen.

Young voters' pessimism about the housing market can be attributed to multiple economic factors, including inflation, debt and high interest rates. The lack of affordable housing affects our day-to-day lives and our future goals, like being able to build a family and retire.

Caroline Coladonato, a Gen Zer and real estate agent in Pennsylvania, moved back in with her parents to save money for a home purchase. "One of the main reasons I want to buy a home is because it's part of the American Dream," she said.

Coladonato said having a better understanding of the homebuying process makes her feel more confident about her prospects. "Part of that comes from my industry experience. I know what programs and resources are available for homebuyers, especially for first-time buyers," she said.

Many of us never learned about homebuying or housing market fundamentals, let alone basic personal finance, in school. Similar to Coladonato, if I didn't cover the housing market and mortgage rates for a living, I'd probably feel a lot worse about being able to afford an eventual home purchase.

At the end of the day, how the next administration addresses (or doesn't address) housing affordability isn't within our control. Neither are mortgage rates or home prices. But the more we learn about the process of buying a home and how mortgages work, the better off we'll be.

"That's not to say it isn't a tricky market. It is. But I think when you see the steps for yourself, and know that it is possible, you now have a tangible goal to reach toward," said Coladonato.

So, I wrote a guide to help me (and you) make that dream of homeownership a reality.

While I'm not planning on buying a home anytime soon, I'm using my 20s to focus on the little things that are actually within my control, like building my credit score, contributing what I can to savings and avoiding debt.