Top States for Under-35 Homeowners

States with the largest populations of young adult households naturally tend to have a higher number of young adult homeowners. However, observing where young homeowners make up a higher or lower share of all households provides a more valuable understanding of how this age group impacts the purchase and rental markets.

According to a Chandan Economics analysis of data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Texas, California, and Florida have the most number of households headed by someone under 35. These states also have the most homeowners under 35 and generally rank near the top for renters.

State population size largely drives these rankings. However, alternatively, the states with the highest shares of U35 homeowners as a percent of all households reveal where young, first-time homebuyers face fewer barriers to ownership.

Utah (11.6%), Alaska (10.2%), and Iowa (10.1%) maintain the highest proportion of U35 homeowners as a share of all households in the nation, with North Dakota (10.0%) and Wyoming (9.6%) rounding out the top 5.

Notably, the share of households that are U35 is also relatively high in each of these states — with younger adults making up at least one-fifth of total housing demand in all cases. A common theme of the past decade, especially in the pandemic-era housing market, was that housing demand flowed from high-cost to high-affordability markets in search of attainable homeownership.

Still, as reflected by DC's high density of U35 households and low prevalence of U35 homeowners, labor market dynamics will always retain a strong gravitational pull. States that rank in the bottom ten for share of U35 homeowners are among some of the highest for average hourly wages, including DC, which is lowest in U35 homeowner density.

For early-career professionals, the earnings boost and experience gained by living in a high-cost market outweigh seeking affordable homeownership opportunities elsewhere. The other states with low shares of U35 homeowners as a share of all households follow a similar high-opportunity, high-cost mold — including California (4.6%) and New York (4.8%), followed by Hawaii (5.1%) and Nevada (5.4%).