As home prices swell further out of reach, more buyers are turning to unconventional purchasing strategies. One tactic, co-buying, is increasingly popular with Gen Z-ers — the youngest buyers — according to a recent study.
About one-third of adult Gen Z-ers (those 18 to 28 years old) are open to pooling funds and purchasing a home with friends or family, according to the 2025 home-buyer report from National MI, a private mortgage insurance company, and FirstHome IQ, a nonprofit focused on financial literacy and home-buyer education. “Gen Z is embracing alternative strategies more enthusiastically than their millennial counterparts,” the report notes, with only 18 percent of millennials saying they are open to the co-buying strategy.
The report’s findings represent survey responses from 1,000 participants, aged 18 to 44, who were divided into three brackets: Gen Z (18 to 24), Younger Millennials (25 to 34), and Older Millennials (35 to 44). The sample aimed to represent current population demographics, considering race, income and gender.
Co-buyers are typically friends, family or romantic partners; for Gen Z buyers — many of whom have little in the way of savings and earn less than older buyers — it’s often a family affair. About a quarter of Gen Z homeowners purchased homes with their parents, according to a Bank of America report released in June, while 22 percent bought their homes with siblings — an increase from 12 percent in 2024 and 4 percent in 2023.
Because co-buying involves two or more people splitting the responsibilities of purchasing, maintaining and living in a home, the arrangements present all kinds of challenges. CoBuy, the makers of the co-buying planning app Co-ownerOS, surveyed co-owners and found that 94 percent of respondents said they needed help with co-owner agreements, which carefully outline the terms of buying and living together. Record keeping and exit strategies were identified as major pain points.
Other home-buying strategies for people struggling to enter the market include renting out portions of properties, buying fixer-uppers, and shopping in more affordable neighborhoods that may not be the buyers’ top choices, according to the National MI report. Like co-buying, all of these approaches are more popular with Gen Z-ers than millennials.
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