In the 1950s, being married and owning a home in your 30s was extremely common. The rate of occurrence was over 50%. Since then, however, the rate of homeownership for this demographic has dropped drastically. According to government data, this type of person today is a rarity, only accounting for 15% of the American population.
It gets even worse. According to a Bowling Green State University study, the key indicators for reaching adulthood (living independently from parents, married, full-time employed, completed education, and homeownership) are mostly not being met. The only two areas that have improved since 1994 are employment and education. Everything else has dropped. For example, marriage rates have decreased from 75% in 1994 to 57% as of 2024. Meanwhile, there’s been a spike in 30-year-olds still living at home with their parents.
How can this be? How have we as a country managed to make homeownership a status symbol for married 30-year-olds? How did we pervert the milestones of adulthood into something not worth striving for?
Several economic and cultural drivers are at play.
1.) Buying a House Is Expensive
The median home price in the U.S. is $435,300. Add in a 6.5% or so mortgage rate, and that puts homes out of reach for most of those entering the market for the first time.
Why are houses so expensive? Well, there is a lack of inventory. “Rising materials costs, supply-chain issues and labor shortages stemming from COVID all negatively impacted housing supply,” according to Bankrate. “But the problem actually existed long before the pandemic: Essentially, the U.S. has failed to keep up with the housing demands of a continually increasing population. (Particularly when it comes to millennials, a huge demographic who are now at prime homebuying age.) One factor that exacerbates the shortage is the activity of institutional investors, who buy up housing inventory to flip or rent out for profit.”
So, not only is there a COVID-related housing shortage, but flipping homes to rent them has also made a huge dent in the available inventory.
2.) Young Adults Are Choosing to Hold Off on Getting Married
Young women in particular have been encouraged to hold off on settling down so they can have a career. But as counterintuitive as it seems, the strength of the middle class — the heart of our economy — is tied to the nuclear family. Childrearing is expensive, but intact families are also more likely to have higher incomes and thus be able to afford things like a place to call home.
3.) College Debt
If it so happens that a married 30-year-old couple wants to buy a house, they may be greatly hindered by college debt). According to the aforementioned Bowling Green State University study, completing higher education (bachelor’s degree or higher) increased from 24% in 1994 to 44% in 2024. Furthermore, 28.1% of 30- to 39-year-olds are still paying off student loans, the Educational Data Initiative reports. On average, they still owe $42,014.
When you factor together all these counterbalancing cultural and financial calculations facing Millennials and older Gen Zers, it’s not surprising that the 30-year-olds aren’t living the American Dream.
As a Millennial married mother, I am fortunate to be part of the 15% of relatively young Americans who own a home. I got married right out of college, and my husband and I were able to get our first house at age 24 because we only had to pay off one college debt and received an amazing mortgage rate, the likes of which we may or may not ever see again.
Conversely, a close family member who is married with two kids and only a couple of years away from 30 is in an entirely different position. Owning a house is financially out of the question, as they have been priced out of the market entirely. It’s a dilemma many families face, and it needs to be addressed.
Solutions?
While there is no quick fix to a catastrophe that has been decades in the making, there are some potential solutions in the works. For example, there is a very odd alliance between Senators Elizabeth Warren and John Kennedy, who have teamed up to create the Build Now Act, which would withhold money from states that choose not to build adequate housing.
“As a general rule, whenever Democrats and Republicans — and in this case, a conservative like John Kennedy and a socialist like Elizabeth Warren — team up to promote legislation, it’s usually a good idea to be skeptical,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh states. “That said, more housing is obviously a good idea. Increasing the supply of housing usually means that prices will go down. That’s basic economics. And although it’s reasonable to be concerned about the federal government throwing taxpayer money around, this is one of those rare times where it makes sense.”
Another solution is to culturally refocus on the bedrock of marriage and family, and the freedom those privileges represent.
