37.8% of people under the age of 18-35 own a home.
61.3% of people 35-44. 
69.4% of people 45-54.
75.4% of people 55-64.
79.6% off people over 65.

65.4% of American’s currently own a home, but there seems to be this surge in content online suggesting younger people are struggling to buy homes.

A lot of stories of people who had grandparents with no college education that in their 20s or 30s were able to buy a home and support a family on one income.

I’ve always questioned this as just a story versus actual logic and wanted to look into it a bit.

First thing to look at is overall home ownership.

In 1940, 43.6% of American’s owned a home.
In 1950, 68%.
In 1960, 61.9%.
In 1970, 64.2%.
In 1980, 65.6%.
In 1990, 64.2%.
In 2000, 65%.
In 2010, 65.1%

Today, it’s 65.4%, showing a high over the beginning of most, with the only exception being 1950. Which 1950 was a little different due to housing offered to veterans after WW2. Those homes while not being bad, weren’t very good to what most people look in modern homes and about half the size of the average home in the US.

Besides that though, there is change over the last 70 years for home ownership as a whole.

The second thing to look at is prices.

$17,000 was the median home price in 1970.
$128,000 today

Today, it’s $374,000, which is almost 3x as high.

Problem though is interest rates were a lot different.

5.7% is the current interest rate on home loans.
8.5% was the rate in 1970.

$128,000
8.5% interest rate
30 year loan

$354,000 paid over 30 years.

$374,000
5.7% interest rate
30 year loan

$772,000

This again is noticeably higher over 1970, but there’s an important lesson thing to note, which is timing.

In 1970, prices were very low, due to a recession, where they dropped to $17,000 on average that year.

The following year, they rose to $25,000.

Comparing that, 2019 was $270,000.

Doing the same check with interest and inflation, a 1971 home would be $520,000 in total payments, while a 2019 home is $580,000.

A little higher, but it shows how much the economy and interest changes things, where throughout history, there’s a good and bad time to buy.

These two examples above both make points, but probably the biggest issue is population in certain parts of the US.

205 million people lived in the US in 1970.
329 million today.

A 60.5% increase

Comparing that, California.

19.9 million people lived in California in 1970.
39.3 million people live there today.

A 97% increase

California has increased over 50% more than the United States on average, which is probably the most important factor to housing with generations.

People’s grandparents moved in early.

Southern California
NYC
Austin
Ann Arbor
Seattle

Places that are really popular now weren’t as popular half a century ago and that’s why certain regions have way higher prices, while most of the US is the same price or less over before.

Final thoughts

I think most of this is nostalgia for the past pressed on social media, for a time that never really existed.