Salt Lake City has the largest share of Generation Z home shoppers in the nation, according to a report by LendingTree.
The older members of Gen Z — the generation born between 1997 and 2012 — are entering the housing market, and they made up nearly 22.6% of mortgage requests in the Salt Lake City area in 2022, according to a June report by the online lending site.
“Though the average mortgage amount in Salt Lake City is higher than in many of the nation’s other large metros, it’s a hot spot for younger homebuyers, likely owing to — among other factors — its strong jobs market and a good blend of urban and rural amenities,” according to the report.
That’s even though housing costs in Utah have skyrocketed over the past several years. However, housing prices in the state are down year over year. As higher mortgage rates pushed the national market into correction mode, the West’s real estate prices have been hardest hit. In Utah’s most populous county, Salt Lake County, the median price for all housing types dropped to $495,000, a 10.8% decline year over year, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.
Utah is also the youngest state in the nation, with a median age of 31.8, so that’s likely a contributing factor to the prevalence of Gen Z home shoppers in its capital city metro area. Even though Gen Zers are battling economic headwinds and student loan debt, some are still finding their way into the housing market.
The average Gen Z homebuyer age in Salt Lake City was 22, with an average credit score of 678, according to the report. The average requested loan among young potential buyers was $340,484, and the average down payment was $30,456.
After Salt Lake City, other metros popular with Gen Z include relatively inexpensive Oklahoma City with 22.4%, and Birmingham Alabama, at 20.79%, according to LendingTree.
On the other end of the spectrum, highly expensive metros like San Francisco, New York, and San Jose, California, have the smallest percentage of mortgage requests by Gen Zers. In all, six of the 10 least popular metros for potential Gen Z buyers are located in California, demonstrating how challenging the state’s housing costs can be for young buyers.
LendingTree ranked metro areas by analyzing the percentage of total purchase mortgage requests generated on its online platform from adult Gen Z borrowers (ages 18 to 25) as a percentage of the total number of requests generated by borrowers of all ages. It used data from mortgage purchase requests made from the nation’s 50 largest metros from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2022.