ServiceLink, the nation’s premier provider of tech-enabled mortgage services, has officially published the results from its latest report, which reveals a willingness among Gen Zs to buy a home this year. Having said so, high interest rates and home prices can still force them to change their plans.
More on the given exercise would reveal how this annual survey is designed to analyze generational trends across recent and prospective homebuyers, thus unpacking their sentiment in regards to current housing market and their intentions to purchase, refinance, or leverage home equity this year.
Named as 2025 ServiceLink State of Homebuying Report (SOHBR), ServiceLink’s latest exercise brings forth insights from homeowners who either purchased a home or tried to purchase a home within the past four years, while simultaneously focusing on yearly trends that provide valuable insights for lenders, servicers, investors, and real estate agents.
For instance, the report shows that buyers and would-be buyers showed a growing interest in technology, adding more space to their home and a desire for better transparency.
“These findings show that there is still a strong appetite for homeownership, particularly among the youngest generation, despite the ups and downs of today’s market,” said Dave Steinmetz, president of origination services at ServiceLink. “Today’s buyers need to be armed with information, while demonstrating patience and flexibility, in order to achieve their dream of homeownership. For lenders, this provides an opportunity to tap into technology and increase offerings that buyers indicate they want to see. Lenders also should focus on education and increasing transparency.”
Talk about the discovered results on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how 67% of Gen Z respondents said they plan to purchase a home this year compared to 51% of millennials, 49% of Gen X, and 22% of baby boomers.
Now, while an aggregated total of 47% respondents who said they plan to consider purchasing a home in 2025, 43% respondents also said that they decided against it due to high home prices and interest rates.
Gen Z particularly led all respondents in their decision to walk away from the process, as 58% said they abandoned the homebuying process in 2024, whereas 38% said they were unsuccessful in their attempt to purchase over the last four years.
Moving on, 69% of respondents would on to reveal that they are happy with their current mortgage rate, but despite that being the case, tolerance for high rates is shrinking fast.
An example relaying the same relates to Gen Z preferring an average 5.1% mortgage rate, with their ceiling being 5.8%. For better understanding, the stated limit marks a downturn from one year ago, when Gen Z respondents were willing to go as high as 6.3%.
Not just that, Millennials also are pulling back their mortgage tolerance this year, as the highest rate they would consider was set at 5.5%, down from 6.2% in 2024.
Staying with millennials, 51% of them still plan to buy in 2025, down from 59% last year and 61% two years ago. Furthermore, no more than 46% of millennials said conditions are favorable to buy in 2025. This is down from 60% in 2023.
As for the Gen X, they markedly displayed a renewed interest in buying a home in 2025. You see, 49% of Gen X respondents said they plan to buy, up from 45% in 2024, 25% in 2023 and 12% in 2022.
The Gen X was also the most influenced by technology. We get to say so because 82% said they would be more likely to work with a lender that offers appraisal or closing appointment scheduling from a phone or tablet. Apart from that, 77% of respondents here said they would select a lender who offered virtual closings.
Among other things, we ought to mention that an estimated 39% of all respondents said they have at least $100,000 in home equity, up from 34% in 2023. One in four respondents said they plan to take out a home equity loan this year, down slightly from 28% in 2024.
However, 10% of respondents also said that they don’t know enough about home equity loans to consider them.
