Why Housing Affordability Is the Top Issue for Gen Z Voters Ahead of Midterms

As the U.S. heads into midterms, housing affordability remains a top concern—especially among Gen Z voters, who are currently age 18 to 29.

A recent CNBC poll found that housing costs are the top political issue for voters aged 18 to 34 and men aged 18 to 49—not surprising, since homeownership feels increasingly out of reach for millions of prospective buyers. 

Recent Realtor.com® research found that about 1 in 3 adult children under 35—an astounding 25.2 million people—still live with their parents, contributing to a household deficit of about 4.3 million households compared with 2010 levels. 

Yet younger people still believe homeownership is a vital part of the American dream. A 2025 Realtor.com survey found that Gen Zers and millennials are more likely than other generations to view homeownership as a life goal, and about half believe it's a key part of building long-term wealth.

So young Americans aren't willfully turning their backs on homeownership.

“What you see is lots of people around the country waking up and realizing that they're in their 30s and 40s, they're not able to buy a home, and they may never be able to,” says John D. Landis, professor emeritus of City & Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Nationally, housing affordability remains near its worst levels since the mid-1980s, says Realtor.com senior economist Hannah Jones.

"With home prices and mortgage rates both elevated, the typical U.S. household can’t afford a median-priced home," says Jones. "Incomes have grown far more slowly than home prices, so saving for a down payment takes longer, too."

The economist adds: "These pressures have made affordability a top concern for Americans worried about the future of accessible homeownership, and voters across the country are turning out to back policies that make housing more affordable."

A perfect storm

Landis attributes what he calls the "general current of dissatisfaction" around housing affordability to a few things.

He says high interest rates and rising inflation certainly contribute. But Gen Z voters also feel growing frustration with what they see as government inaction and stagnation.

A 2025 survey from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University revealed that younger generations feel that current political parties and structures don't serve them.

Younger generations "are not necessarily becoming more conservative or progressive. They are becoming more cynical and frustrated," said Scott Warren, co-author of the report and a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute, in a statement.

That sentiment has been stoked by watching their parents go through the 2008 financial crisis and their own experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They saw during the financial crisis that nobody paid for it. Nobody went to jail. And in COVID, basically they saw, you know, messages being manipulated politically," says Landis

That, along with the rise of social media, created a sea change in the way young people think about politics.

"You have younger people who are on social media all the time, who have no confidence in older generations or political parties' ability to solve these problems, whereas previous generations had some sense that if they went to the ballot box and changed who they voted for, things might change," he continues. "Which is why you have so many young people attracted to the Democratic Socialists Party. Because they just say, 'Oh my gosh, all these political parties are—they're the problem.'"

Wages aren't meeting rising the cost of living

Housing affordability is a multipronged problem, says Kirk McClure, professor emeritus of urban planning in the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. And it's not going to be solved in one election.

While housing supply isn't meeting demand, wages also aren't keeping up with the cost of living.

"Simply put, we've got a whole lot of people in the bottom fourth, let's say, of the income distribution who struggle to find a way to afford housing. Simply because the entry threshold for prices is just higher than they can afford," says McClure, who previously served as a Scholar in Residence at HUD's Department of Policy Development and Research.

And with median home listing prices 34% above pre-pandemic levels, as Gen Z might say, the math isn't mathing.

McClure believes the disconnect between wages and the cost of living is the housing market's single greatest structural failure and says raising the minimum wage—which at the federal level has remained at $7.25 since 2009—could go a long way toward putting people into homes—especially for young adults who are often starting with lower wages. 

About 18% of adults aged 18–24 live below the federal poverty line, and about 35% of young adults live in low-income households, according to research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. 

"If we up the minimum wage to $25 an hour ... you would now be moving people well [into stability]. And even if you go less than that, $20 an hour, you'd be moving households into $40,000 annually. If you look at the incidence of high housing cost burden ... that problem pretty well goes away," he says. However, McClure admits that in cities like Seattle, where the minimum wage is set to surpass $22 an hour in 2027, an affordability disparity persists.

Even with an increase in the minimum wage, McClure says, “When you're talking about buying, even a 5% down payment, it's a lot of money to put aside, especially if you're straddling student debt.

“Then you've got to have a car. You shouldn't have a fancy one, but you still need a car to get to work in most of America. So therein lies the problem. It is almost impossible for these young people to get a well-paid position and be able to save sufficient money even to do the first step of getting a first apartment—much less 5% down on a home,” he adds.

 McClure hopes current concerns about high interest rates will push state and local governments to introduce policies that help people buy homes.

"Interestingly, we saw more of that in the early 80s when interest rates were very high. And we're starting to see state governments wanting to step up to make it easier for builders to build and make it easier for people to buy homes."

He concedes, though, that "We're not seeing state governments talk about renters. That's happening in city by city. So we're not going to see a cataclysm in the housing market—we're going to see some progress in some states."

A housing supply gap stokes concern

Beyond overall dissatisfaction with politics and suboptimal wages, Gen Zers who want to become homeowners one day are facing a widening housing supply gap. According to Realtor.com research, in 2025, new home construction fell short of household formation, creating a 4.03 million-home housing supply gap.

Victor Body-Lawson is the principal architect at Body Lawson Associates, a New York City–based architecture and design firm that's worked on affordable housing projects around the country.

Body-Lawson has seen firsthand how the affordability crunch is affecting households. A 100-unit affordable housing project his firm recently built in New York received more than 70,000 applications, or 7,000 applications for every apartment.

"That's how huge the need is," Body-Lawson explains, noting that older housing stock often saddles lower-income tenants with high utility and operating bills because of outdated mechanical systems.

"The fact that the building is essentially in the last stages of its life cycle makes it a lot more expensive than if I were to move to a new building," he says.

But Body-Lawson says administrative backlogs and permitting delays often hinder builders, slowing the delivery of needed housing. 

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which passed with broad bipartisan support despite President Donald Trump's refusal to sign it, aims to address some of those roadblocks and boost the housing supply by cutting red tape and bureaucracy associated with new builds.

As the midterms near, the current administration appears to be trying to win over voters by pushing a stronger message on housing affordability. On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order on housing affordability and launched a task force on manufactured housing.

Despite not signing the Road Act, Trump said in a statement that "it is the policy of my Administration to reduce regulatory barriers to mortgage origination and costs impeding homeownership." He called homeownership "a vital pillar of our great country."

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department proposed a new rule limiting institutional investors to 350 homes.

Institutional investors own around 1% of America’s single-family rental stock, according to the American Enterprise Institute. However, "impact on the overall housing market (both the rented and owned space) is highly exaggerated by politicians on both sides of the aisle,” Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com, previously noted.

Despite the frustration Landis sees among young people around affordability, he believes housing remains a solid investment—for those who can afford it.

"There's strong demand. There's limited supply. So housing is gonna be a solid investment," he says.

Regardless of what happens in the midterms, Landis believes local policy will have the biggest impact on housing affordability.

"We don't have a national housing market in this country," he says. "We have national forces that buffet local housing markets, and we may worry about how those national forces buffet local housing markets, but at the end of the day it's really up to states and local governments to figure out what they wanna do about housing, and they will. Some will and some won't."