A new housing report has revealed a surprising trend among Gen Zers in the Alamo City: San Antonio is home to the highest share of Gen Z homeowners in the entire state of Texas, yet homeownership rates generally aren’t looking good for the rest of the Zoomer generation.
Out of the 67,860 Gen Z households in the San Antonio metro, about 20 percent of them are homeowners, according to a new Rentcafe study, making San Antonio the No. 8 trending metro area for Gen Z homeowners nationwide.
The report analyzed the U.S. hotspots where Gen Zers (individuals born between 1997 and 2012) are renting versus buying their homes. Using homeownership and renting data across 97 U.S. metros, RentCafe’s analysts determined which cities have had the biggest gains in Gen Z renters and homeowners from 2018-2023.
The study’s findings show there were 53,998 San Antonio-based Gen Z households as of 2023, a figure that has skyrocketed over the last several years. (There were only 7,551 Gen Z renter households in the metro in 2018.) During that five-year period, the rate of Gen Z homeowners in San Antonio grew from 463 to 13,862 households; conversely, San Antonio sits at No. 68 in the national comparison of metros where nearly all Gen Z individuals rent.
Unsurprisingly, affordability is one of the biggest hurdles that the younger generation faces when it comes to homeownership. But San Antonio home prices may be slowly starting to cool off. According to the latest market insight from the San Antonio Board of Realtors, median housing prices for all residential homes in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro have dipped 2.4 percent since last February, to $296,000.
RentCafe adds that metros with good job opportunities (and good pay), recreational activities, and good schools are top-of-mind for Gen Zers who want to settle down in one place.
“And it’s not just the big coastal cities that offer these things,” the report’s author wrote. “While major hubs like New York City and Boston still attract Gen Z renters, the real growth is happening in the South.”
Gen Z renter and homeownership rates in other Texas cities
A meteoric rise in Gen Z renters is happening across Texas.
Austin has the second-highest share of Gen Z renters in Texas, and it ranked No. 6 among U.S. metros where nearly all Gen Zers are renters. A surprising 91.56 percent of all Gen Z individuals living in the Austin area rent, and only 8.44 percent are homeowners. Out of the total 102,323 Gen Z households living in the metro, 93,687 are renters, while the remaining 8,636 own their homes.
In Houston, 162,305 Gen Z households are renters, and 27,093 are homeowners. That means about 86 percent of all Gen Z households rent, and 14 percent own homes.
Dallas-Fort Worth has the highest number of Gen Z renters in the state, at 189,461 households, and only 25,002 Gen Zers own homes.
