Rising Prices, Rising Ages: The Wealth Gap Widens

The housing market tells a clear story: ownership is consolidating and opportunity is shrinking. As older, wealthier buyers dominate new purchases, younger generations are left navigating rising rents and limited access to credit. At KeyStep, we see the impact firsthand in every workshop and conversation. Our mission is to give people the knowledge, tools, and support to move from awareness to ownership. By helping aspiring buyers build financial readiness and connect with real opportunities, KeyStep works to ensure that home equity once again contributes to community growth.

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The Generational Flip

It is not just institutions; it is individuals with institutional-level advantages. Older, asset-rich buyers can compete in ways that mirror large investors, while younger buyers start from scratch and often rely on family help for down payments, a share that has roughly doubled since 2019 (Urban Institute, 2024). This dynamic widens the wealth gap both across generations.  That share has been cut in half since 2007, just before the Great Recession.  At the same time, 46 percent of homes purchased in 2024 were by buyers aged 60 and over (NAR, 2025). That is not a side note; it is a signal that market power is concentrating among asset-rich households with the liquidity to move even when rates are high.

  Having benefited from low-rate opportunities and steady appreciation, older generations now hold the equity, liquidity, and leverage to keep buying even at higher rates. They can purchase in cash, hold through downturns, and compete in ways that first-time buyers simply cannot. The result is a quiet feedback loop: as home prices rise, so does the net worth of older homeowners, giving them more buying power for the next purchase. Meanwhile, younger buyers face rising barriers, watching both prices and the average age of entry climb out of reach.

A Ground-Level View

  At KeyStep sessions, the questions that arise are practical and personal: How can I start building credit while paying rent?  What does a realistic first step look like?  Participants offer motivated questions of system navigation, and they reflect a generation that understands the stakes but feels locked out of the process.  But there is also the flip; the dark side of defeatism…. One recent workshop participant neatly summed up Gen-Z’s echoing malaise:

“I can’t afford to buy a home in my desired community because of ‘evil’ institutions like BlackRock.”

  This frame of mind is something we will work to shift at KeyStep.  Illuminating possible paths to ownership.  

  In our engagements, we hear the same concern repeatedly from younger participants, often paired with a sober understanding of how different the housing landscape has become. They follow the same housing headlines about rising rates and investor activity and recognize that the barriers to ownership are not temporary. What they face is a structural problem shaped by timing, wages, and access to capital.

  In 2025, first-time buyers made up only 21 percent of the market, and the average age of a first-time homeowner reached 40 (NAR, 2025). These are alarming numbers. They suggest that entry into homeownership has shifted from an early-adulthood milestone to a midlife achievement, one increasingly determined by preexisting financial advantages such as family support, accumulated assets, or the ability to weather high interest rates without risk. For many younger earners, the opportunity to buy is no longer built through steady work alone but inherited through access to wealth that was already in place.

  That mix of frustration and realism is typical of what we see. Gen Z participants already sense that something structural has shifted. They read the headlines, scroll through stories about rising rates and investor activity, and wonder where that leaves them. What they often lack is not interest, but direction.  In 2025, the share of first-time home buyers fell to a record 21 percent, and the typical first-time buyer age rose to 40, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR, 2025). These are alarming numbers! 

  At KeyStep sessions, the questions are honest and grounded: How do I start building credit when I’m just getting by? Is it even possible to save for a home while paying rent here? What does a realistic first step look like? They know the odds are stacked, but they still show up looking for a way forward. That’s where our role begins. KeyStep meets them at that intersection of awareness and uncertainty, turning broad worries into tangible next steps and helping them see that ownership isn’t out of the question, it just requires a path built for where they actually are.

The Locked Gate

At the same time, high prices and high interest rates are no longer just market forces. They are accelerators of the wealth gap, compounding advantage for those already on the inside. Ownership flows toward those who can leverage premium terms or bypass lending altogether. For everyone else, the gate stays closed.

  On the rental side, the barrier is already set. According to the Federal Reserve’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 report, more than two-thirds of renters say they rent because they cannot afford a down payment (Federal Reserve, 2025). The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies notes that renter households have climbed to roughly 44 million, or one-third of all U.S. households (Harvard JCHS, 2024).

  Behind those numbers is a simple truth: renting has become less of a choice and more of a condition. For many, every rent payment represents a lost opportunity to build equity. Meanwhile, investor-owned single-family rentals have expanded since the foreclosure crisis, and studies from Brookings and the Philadelphia Fed show these properties often command higher rents and reduce neighborhood affordability (Brookings, 2023; Philadelphia Fed, 2024).

  The implications stretch beyond affordability. Housing has long been the cornerstone of American wealth-building. When nearly half of new home purchases come from buyers aged 60 and over (NAR, 2025), while younger generations remain trapped in an inflated rental economy that now accounts for roughly one-third of all U.S. households (Harvard JCHS, 2024), the result is a widening wealth gap playing out in real time.

Prices and investor dominance are reshaping who gets to own.

The KeyStep Response

   This is why KeyStep exists. The answer is not to vilify ownership but to rebalance it. We focus on community development, education, and empowerment that reconnect everyday earners to the path of ownership.

  Our boots-on-the-ground engagement helps first-generation and early-career buyers understand credit, savings, and the steps toward qualifying for a mortgage. Homeownership strengthens civic ties, stabilizes neighborhoods, and creates lasting community investment. We partner with local organizations, municipalities, and employers to identify “StepReady” individuals who are on the verge of ownership and ready to take the next step.

  Homeownership should not serve institutions. It is meant to serve communities. That is the path we are protecting.

References

• National Association of REALTORS® (2025). Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report.

• Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (2024). America’s Rental Housing 2024.

• Federal Reserve Board (2025). Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024.

• Urban Institute (2024). Family Assistance and Down Payments: Changing Dynamics in U.S. Homeownership.

• Brookings Institution (2023). Single-Family Rentals: Trends and Policy Recommendations.

• Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (2024). Institutional Investors, Rents, and Neighborhood Change in Single-Family Rentals.