Single Gen Z women accounted for a larger share of single homebuyers than single Gen Z men during the past year, according to survey data released by the National Association of Realtors. In a period from July 2024 through June 2025, the NAR found that single Gen Z women made up 35% of homebuyers in their generation, while single Gen Z men represented 18%, even as homebuying overall remained constrained.
The NAR data also pointed to a broader affordability squeeze: the share of U.S. homes purchased by first-time buyers across all ages sank to the lowest level on record going back to 1981. Within that environment, the survey data provided one of the clearest indicators of a gender split in who is still managing to buy.
NAR surveyed people who bought a home between July 2024 and June 2025, including homebuyers from multiple generations, with Gen Z defined as those born between 1999 and 2011 and aged 18 to 26. In the same survey, Gen Z accounted for 4% of all homebuyers during the period, and the NAR said no other generation had a bigger share of single women homebuyers than Gen Z.
The survey data echoed a longer-running pattern, according to NAR. In 2006, at the height of the mid-2000s housing boom, single women’s share of home purchases peaked at 22%, while single men’s share peaked at 12% in 2010.
NAR deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz pointed to education and legal change as part of the explanation, saying women now outpace men in college attendance, which can lead to higher incomes. Lautz also tied the homeownership drive to historically limited access, saying it was not until the 1970s that women were legally protected to have a mortgage on their own, and that women have embraced that independence.
The report described several affordability challenges for aspiring Gen Z buyers, including the fact that many are early in their careers, are less likely to be married, and may be dealing with student loans. NAR also said their median annual income of $76,000 as of 2024 was the lowest compared with homebuyers from other generations.
Housing costs have continued to stress budgets, the NAR said, with home price growth slowing and prices falling in some areas while still rising in others. The NAR reported that the median U.S. home sales price stood at $417,700 last month, up 0.9% from a year earlier, and the survey described how the down-payment challenge can be amplified for first-time buyers who start without equity from a previous home.
Still, the survey included examples of younger buyers using different pathways to close the gap. Bri LaFluer said she bought her home in 2023 at 24 after starting her search in 2021, working two jobs, and saving about half her pay for a $20,000 down payment. She said she lived with her mother and paid rent that was modest, and she eventually bought a $175,000 home in Baldwinsville, New York, about 15 miles from Syracuse.
LaFluer described her home choice as personal: the house, built in 1900, had three bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and what she called a big yard. She said, “I’ve always been a really independent person and I just wanted my own place to have peace and quiet by myself,” and later said, “I feel like it was meant to be and this just ended up being the perfect house for me and my dogs.”
Another example in the NAR report was Mariah Berry, who said she bought her first home at 23 in 2023 in Charleston, Tennessee, about 45 miles outside Chattanooga. Berry said she had made choices to save while many of her college peers were spending, and she attributed part of her ability to buy to sticking to a plan after periods when she and her boyfriend were moving between short-term rentals and friends’ homes.
Berry financed the purchase after making a $7,000 down payment and taking out a 30-year mortgage at 6% interest, according to the report. She bought a two-bedroom, one-bath home described as one of two units in a ranch-style duplex for $218,000, and she said she became a homeowner quickly after making the offer, describing a moment of doubt as well as her satisfaction with the result.
She said, “I do think it’s pretty frickin’ awesome that I’m a homeowner and that I became a homeowner at 23,” and added, “I will say that after I put in the offer, I wanted to puke. I was like, ’Oh my God, did I do the right thing?’” Berry told the survey she was looking at the possibility of buying the other side of the duplex later as an opportunity to rent out half the property.