More millennials nationwide now own their home vs. renting a place to live, reflecting a significant increase in homeownership last year and 64 percent increase within the past five years, according to a recent study.

The historic increase that tipped the scales for those born between 1981 and 1996 also happened in a shorter time than for previous generations, the study by apartment search website RentCafe revealed.

Additionally, it showed that Las Vegas, Nevada’s largest city, with a 158 percent increase in the past five years, trailed only Richmond, Virginia, with 234 percent, in millennial homeownership in the nation’s top 50 metropolitan areas.

Roughly 7 million millennials made history switching from renters to homeowners during the five-year span. 

Despite the increase, Las Vegas millennials still don’t have quite as large a piece of the homeownership pie in Southern Nevada as older generations. Millennials and Gen Xers (people in their mid-40s to late 50s) each own about 28 percent of all housing in Las Vegas, with both generations lagging 12 percentage points behind Baby Boomers (late 50s to mid-70s). 

Gen Z (people who are still in their preteens to mid-20s) make up 5 percent of all Las Vegas homeowners.

Las Vegas millennials could be behind the national rates of homeownership because Southern Nevada saw a record-breaking increase in housing costs last May when the median single-family home in Las Vegas cost $482,000, 12 percent higher than it is now, according to Las Vegas REALTORS.

The RentCafe study noted that millennials have had many economic factors working in their favor during the past five years that may have aided in their increase in homeownership. Since 2017, millennials’ median income increased 44 percent, the most significant increase among other generations in the same time period. 

Many millennials also moved back in with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed them to save their income during the past three years rather than spending it on rent, according to RentCafe. More than half of millennial homebuyers also received financial help from their parents, family member or friend for their down payments, according to a LendingTree survey. 

Nevada Realtors President Thomas Blanchard said millennials have faced many roadblocks on the path to homeownership.

“The student loans, the unaffordable housing and — it's just craziness, the roadblocks that the current market has given them and to see them overcome it over the last five years, hats off to them in being focused and doing the things necessary to become a homeowner,” Blanchard said.

He said the Las Vegas real estate market operates in extremes, which could have contributed to the city seeing the second largest jump in millennial homeownership across the country.

“Vegas is historically either super hot or super cold,” Blanchard said. “And they [millennials] came in when we had a great run on housing values. More dramatic than other places across the nation.”

Though Las Vegas millennials aren’t the largest demographic group of homeowners, they are the second largest group of renters in Southern Nevada, making up 57 percent, according to the RentCafe study. Gen Z is, predictably, the largest group of renters at 62 percent, primarily because they are young adults who haven’t accrued the wealth to buy a home. Rates of Gen X and baby boomer renting have dropped nearly 22 percent since 2017.