Why young people aren't buying homes

Millennials: The Mobile and the Stuck

Home ownership rates are historically low for young adults.  When discussing why, the causes are numerous, and this situation has a disproportionately negative impact on people with less privileged backgrounds.  This article discusses the difference between postponing home ownership to maintain freedom, and postponing home ownership because there isn't a choice.

The decline in Millennial homeownership today is a single simple statistic masking a complex distribution of motivations. Rich, urban, college-educated, and supermobile Millennials have elected to trade their 30s for their 20s when it comes to buying a home. Meanwhile, poorer, less-educated, and stuck minorities have often traded homes and apartments for their childhood bedroom. Only one of these trends is worth cheering.
— Derek Thompson, The Atlantic