According to a new Lending Tree survey, 48% of tenants worry about not being able to buy a home during their lifetime.
This concern is greatest among Generation X tenants (ages 41 to 55) and millennials (ages 25 to 40). Up to this point, 55% of Generation X tenants and 52% of millennial tenants are concerned about their property prospects, according to the survey, published on August 31st.
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“People who are in the midst of a career, especially Gen Xers in their prime, are thinking,‘ If I haven’t bought a house right now, it probably won’t happen, ”said Jacob Channel, senior economic analyst at Lending Tree .
The sentiment is worrisome, as property represents a great source of wealth for the average family, Channel said.
“What they’ve been seeing for a while, mostly [during] the pandemic is that house prices are rising very, very fast and wages are not necessarily being maintained, ”Channel told tenants.
According to the Pew Research Center, the American middle class depends on domestic equity as a source of wealth rather than on wealthy families, who tend to have more financial assets such as stocks and bonds.
Americans held $ 34 trillion in real estate assets in the first quarter of 2021, or about 23% of total household assets, according to Federal Reserve data. Households also had $ 11 trillion in total mortgage liabilities.
The Lending Tree online survey surveyed 2,050 U.S. consumers Aug. 2-6.