For years, millennials were the housing market’s most sympathetic losers—priced out, rate-locked, and perpetually waiting for their moment. For a growing slice of that generation, the wait is over. And they’re making up for lost time.
According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report, older millennials—now ages 36 to 45—have quietly become the highest-earning, biggest-spending generation of homebuyers in the market. They post the highest median household income of any generational group at $132,700, buy the largest homes at a median 2,100 square feet, and are the most likely to have children living under their roof…
“They really have hit middle age,” said NAR deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz. “They’re at their peak of their career now or heading in that direction. They may have not wanted to follow that trajectory, but they’re there.”
The mechanism driving this transformation is the same one that has long powered boomer dominance: home equity…
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