09/07/2026
There is an unusual concentration of power in today's housing market.
Baby Boomers—Americans roughly ages 61 through 79 in the National Association of REALTORS®' latest generational report—accounted for:
42% of recent home buyers.
And:
55% of recent home sellers.
No other generation came close on either side.
Millennials accounted for 26% of buyers.
Generation X made up 25%.
Gen Z represented just 4%.
Boomers, meanwhile, were not merely the largest buyer generation.
They were an outright majority of sellers.
That matters because this generation enters the housing market from a very different financial position than many of the households trying to buy their first home.
They have had decades to accumulate housing equity.
Many own their homes outright or carry relatively small mortgage balances.
Some can sell one property and bring a substantial amount of cash into the next purchase.
And an unusually large share can avoid mortgage financing altogether.
In a housing market where affordability is keeping younger households on the sidelines, those advantages are increasingly shaping who is actually able to transact.
