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Here’s where Gen Z home buyers are flocking
Metro Indianapolis is tops with this generational cohort. Metro Boston? Not so much, according to a report from Smart Asset.
Homeownership as a Gen Zer? It seems that dream is taking people to Indiana.
The Hoosier state got top billing in a SmartAsset ranking of the top US metros for home buyers in this generational cohort.
Metro Boston? Well, the area that spans Boston, Cambridge, and Newton and into southern New Hampshire, came in 37th out of 40 in the report Smart Asset published on Aug. 1
Metro Boston saw only 0.11 percent of the local Gen Z population buy homes in 2023, with a median property value of $505,000. The median income of the new Gen Z homeowners was $121,000.
The website, which provides financial information and advice, analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2023 to figure out where Gen Z is buying homes at the fastest rate. “Specifically, originated mortgages for people under age 25 were considered,” according to the methodology.
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The analysis also compared the generation’s median income, interest rates, and property values.
In metro Boston, the total number of Gen Z mortgages that originated in 2023 was 395. In the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson metro, that number was 2,266.
The Providence-Warwick metro area was also included in the list, coming in at No. 28 with 547 loans. The area saw 0.48 percent of local Gen Z individuals buying homes that year, with a median value of $375,000 for those properties and a median income of $93,000.
These metros made the top 10:
| RANK | METRO | GEN Z MORTGAGES ORIGINATED | % OF LOCAL GEN Z POP. THAT BOUGHT A HOME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN | 2,266 | 1.64% |
| 2. | St. Louis, MO-IL | 2,649 | 1.56% |
| 3. | Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 2,279 | 1.52% |
| 4. | Jacksonville, Fla. | 1,484 | 1.47% |
| 5. | Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 2,053 | 1.47% |
| 6. | Kansas City, MO-KS | 1,921 | 1.44% |
| 7. | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 3,086 | 1.37% |
| 8. | Pittsburgh | 1,652 | 1.21% |
| 9. | Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN | 1,654 | 1.17% |
| 10. | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 2,042 | 1.17% |
The Indianapolis metro area took the top spot with the largest percentage of Gen Zers buying homes (1.64 percent). The area also has an average property value of $225,000 — less than half the metro Boston median.
These were the bottom 10:
| RANK | METRO | GEN Z MORTGAGES ORIGINATED | % OF LOCAL GEN Z POP. THAT BOUGHT A HOME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40. | San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA | 93 | 0.04% |
| 39. | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 1,333 | 0.11% |
| 38. | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 968 | 0.11% |
| 37. | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 395 | 0.11% |
| 36. | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 157 | 0.13% |
| 35. | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 737 | 0.18% |
| 34. | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 625 | 0.26% |
| 33. | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 872 | 0.35% |
| 32. | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 677 | 0.42% |
| 31. | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 1,700 | 0.43% |
In the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Calif., area, only 93 Gen Z mortgages originated in 2023, with a median value of $1,085,000 for those properties and a median income of $168,500.
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Among the 40 largest metropolitan areas that were included in this analysis, the median income for a Gen Z homebuyer in 2023 was only $81,000. The median property value was $305,000.
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