San Antonio has already proved it's a magnet for Gen Z homeowners, and now a new national housing report has established the city as one of the 10 hottest destinations for millennials, whose local homeownership rate has soared more than 100 percent since 2018.
The number of millennials who own their homes in San Antonio has grown from 74,379 to 153,099 households over the last five years (105.8 percent), according to a new housing analysis from RentCafe.
The study compared homeowner growth rates versus renter growth rates of millennials — based on Pew Research Center's definition as individuals born between 1981 and 1996 — across 107 U.S. metro areas from 2018 to 2023.
San Antonio ranked No. 10 in the overall list of U.S. metros that have seen the highest increase in millennial homeowners since 2018. About 52 percent of all San Antonio-area millennials own their homes, with the remaining 48 percent renting, the report found.
"The top 20 metro areas with the greatest increases in Millennial homeownership are led by sunny regions in Florida and California," the report said. "Unexpected urban hubs such as Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia, and New York also made the list with ownership growth rates reaching 90 percent or higher."
San Antonio also ranked 33rd in the national list of cities with the biggest growth rates among millennial-age renters. The number of millennial renter households jumped from 129,865 to 139,584 in five years, a 7.5 percent hike.
About 5.3 million millennials have become homeowners over the last five years nationwide, RentCafe's analysts said, which represents a massive 74 percent increase in millennial-owned households. The growth rate of renters was much lower in comparison.
"At the same time, the number of millennial renters in the U.S. rose by a modest 5 percent, adding approximately 600,000 households," RentCafe said. "This brings the total number of millennial homeowner households to 12.4 million, close to the 12.6 million millennial renter households."
The top 10 U.S. metros with the highest gains in millennial homeowners are:
- No. 1 – North Port, Florida
- No. 2 – Lakeland, Florida
- No. 3 – Jacksonville, Florida
- No. 4 – Stockton, California
- No. 5 – Oxnard, California
- No. 6 – Palm Bay, Florida
- No. 7 – Austin, Texas
- No. 8 – Tuscon, Arizona
- No. 9 – Deltona, Florida
- No. 10 – San Antonio, Texas
