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. In almost every measurable way, they now look less like the struggling young buyers they once were and more like the baby boomers they spent years resenting.
