DENVER — The share of U.S. non-homeowners who expect to buy a home within five years has dropped to 25%, the lowest Gallup has ever recorded in seven readings since it began asking the question in 2013.
Another 28% of non-homeowners say they expect to buy within 10 years, and 45% do not think they will do so in the foreseeable future.
The latest findings come from Gallup's annual Economy and Personal Finance poll, conducted April 1–15, a period when the median home price hovered around $409,000 and mortgage rates, while somewhat lower than a year ago, remained well above the historic lows of 2020 and 2021.
Denver7 anchor Shannon Ogden sat down with Dr. Vivek Sah of the University of Denver's Center for Housing Research and Innovative Solutions to discuss the survey. Dr. Sah said he is not surprised by the findings.
"Since 2008, 2009, there's been a shift in the way people look at housing. If you go back generations, buying a house would create wealth, that was the philosophy. But I don't think that's true any more for millennials and generations after that. They look at housing more as something they can get stuck with," Sah said.
Sah said homeownership is no longer a reliable way to create wealth, and after years of rising home prices, interest rates and crushing student loan debt, owning a home is no longer necessarily the American Dream.
"So the financial realities have made over time owning a home not aspirational any more?" Ogden asked.
"Aspirational. That's a good word, yes," Sah said.
According to the Colorado Association of Realtors, the median sale price for a single-family home in the Denver metro is around $575,000.
The decline in near-term homebuying intentions is most pronounced among younger non-homeowners, who would typically be the most likely first-time buyers. Two-year combined averages show that just 29% of non-homeowners aged 18 to 34 in 2025 and 2026 say they expect to buy a home within five years, down from 57% in 2013 and 2015 and 53% in 2016 and 2018.
At the same time, the share of young non-homeowners saying they will not buy in the foreseeable future has more than doubled, from 13% to 30%. The share expecting to buy within 10 years has risen from 27% to 41%, suggesting younger non-homeowners have not abandoned the idea of buying a home but are pushing their timeline out significantly.
Between 2013 and 2018, non-homeowners' intentions to buy a home within five years were much higher, ranging from 41% to 49%. When Gallup next asked the question in 2025, that figure had dropped to 30%.
A lack of inventory adds to the difficulty for would-be buyers. Currently, 18% of homeowners say they plan to sell within the next five years, 16% say within the next 10 years, and 65% say they are unlikely to sell in the foreseeable future.
The poll finds that 61% of Americans say they own their primary residence, while 34% rent. Homeownership in the U.S. has averaged 61% in Gallup polls since 2012, down from 70% between 2001 and 2011.
Just 29% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, while 67% say it is a bad time. This is the fifth consecutive year that a majority of U.S. adults have seen the market as unfavorable — a stark shift from most of the previous two decades when solid majorities were positive about homebuying. Still, the percentage saying it is a good time to buy has risen from its record low of 21% in 2023 and 2024.
Majorities of all major demographic groups think it is a bad time to buy a house. The widest gap falls along partisan lines, with Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (41%) nearly twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (22%) to say it is a good time to buy. Two years ago, 18% of Republicans and Republican leaners said it was a good time to buy a house.
Women, young adults aged 18 to 34, and adults living in the Eastern U.S. are less likely than their counterparts to say it is a good time to buy.
Americans are largely in agreement about where home prices are headed, with 65% expecting prices in their area to increase over the next year, up 8 percentage points from 2025. Meanwhile, 22% believe prices will stay the same and 12% think they will fall.
City residents (71%) are more likely than their suburban (62%) and rural (61%) counterparts to expect an increase. Young adults aged 18 to 34 (79%) are also much more likely than 35- to 54-year-olds (64%) and those aged 55 and older (57%) to think home prices will rise.
Majorities of U.S. adults have predicted that home prices would increase since 2013, aside from 2020, when pandemic uncertainty pushed that figure down to 40%.
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