Pandemic Windfall, Mapped: When Accessibility Opened the Door to New Wealth

From 2020 to 2024, US home prices are rising, creating a big windfall for homeowners. Yet the metros that have generated the biggest gains aren’t just the ones where prices have risen the most—they’re also the ones where families can still afford it, according to a new report from Realtor.com®.

The findings underscore an important point about the role of homeownership as one of the wealth-building tools for the American middle class: Appreciation is the driver, but access is the key to the engine.

At that point, the report also finds that early entry can be very beneficial. Buying a home at age 32 is associated with an average price of 22.5% more than at age 50, or about $119,000 more, than waiting another decade to buy.

“Although the challenges of not being able to pay the costs are delaying the entry of homeowners, housing wealth has continued to grow rapidly in many parts of the country, especially in households that have been able to buy in the last six or seven years,” it said. Hannah JonesRealtor.com senior economic research analyst and report author.

As the housing market remains top of mind for policymakers at all levels, the lesson from metros where housing wealth has grown exponentially over generations is clear: Yes, homeownership creates wealth, but affordability determines who can buy.

Being able to access the road to productive wealth

Interestingly, among the metros where tiny homes made up the most housing wealth from 2019 to 2024, Gen Z and millennial buyers weren’t focusing on the cheapest neighborhoods. In fact, their group had the highest list price in 2019 — under $290,000, compared to $282,000 for Gen X and $270,000 for boomers.

The pattern suggests that younger buyers weren’t targeting commercial markets, but prioritizing metros where job opportunities were strong and homeownership was possible with little help—in the form of family finances, higher incomes, or financing tools that lowered the hurdle ahead, Jones said.

When asked what could explain the high entry points, he says: “It could be millennials and Gen Z still have more money from family or higher incomes. It could be chasing these high-growth metros with more job opportunities. And it could be these younger, first-time buyers using mortgage programs, like VA loans, or other down payment assistance programs to get into home ownership.”

Of the 10 metros where Gen Z and millennial homeowners are building the most real estate wealth, five rank among the top 25 US metros for Veterans Affairs loans issued per capita.

The power of those loans is something Belen Garciareal estate agent in San Diego, has seen it firsthand.

Garcia recently helped two buyers, ages 20 and 23, close on a house in one of the most expensive housing markets thanks to a VA loan.

“With a VA loan, the advantage is that they can buy a home with a 0% down payment, so they don’t have to wait until they have the savings for a down payment, which is a huge advantage,” Garcia said.

That’s a huge edge in today’s market. It takes the average first-time buyer nearly 10 years to save for a down payment today, while 35 years ago, it took just three, a study from Realtor.com shows.

VA loans can compress that timeline, allowing buyers to start building equity earlier—when the long-term wealth benefits of home ownership are strongest.

Florida’s multi-generational door to wealth

While VA loans can create affordability where it wouldn’t exist otherwise, the Sunshine State is proof of how broad affordability is driving wealth for everyone.

Florida’s 10 oldest cities account for 13 of the 30 areas that have built multi-generational housing wealth. Jacksonville, North Port, and Ocala each made the list for two generations in the top 10.

Jacksonville is perhaps the most striking example. Gen Z and millennial homeowners there received nearly $50 billion in real estate wealth between 2019 and 2024, while boomers and seniors received nearly $54 billion.

Part of what makes Florida so unusual is that before the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these markets still offered a real way to get in.

“You can still buy a really nice home for, you know, $300,000, so it was very affordable,” he said. David Crawfordowner of Catalyst Realty in Sarasota and 2026 president of the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee.

“Everybody’s got a gun,” he adds. “There were products for all income levels back then.”

With an inventory for every buyer, the door was effectively open to building wealth for small households who could get first homes before prices increased, while also giving long-term owners a greater chance of equity.

Then the epidemic turbocharge scale the need.

“We’ve seen home values ​​go up a lot” across the state, Jones said. Although prices have fallen in some areas since the outbreak of the pandemic, they remain “above those 2019 domestic price levels.”

In places like Sarasota, that demand has also transformed markets that once flew under the radar.

“We were a hidden gem before. The secret is out now,” Crawford said.

Even in the older generations, the greatest growth in wealth did not occur where you might expect

Even the most market-oriented homeowners—the baby boomers and Gen Xers—did not build much of their home wealth in the country’s highest or most expensive markets.

Instead, many of their biggest winds have been seen in metros where strong local economies, inventory shortages, and pandemic-era demand have combined to send home prices soaring.

For boomers and older homeowners, 6 of the top 10 metros were in Florida, with other prominent markets in the Southeast. Spartanburg, SC, ranked first, where housing wealth grew by 135.4%, or $8.8 billion, while Gainesville, FL, ranked second, with gains of 133.2%, or $10.9 billion.

Gen X followed a similar pattern, with a somewhat wider map. North Port, FL, ranked first, with real estate wealth increasing by 264.6%, or $31.5 billion. Madison, WI, came in second, at 230.7%, or $23.1 billion, followed by Port St. Lucie, FL, by 219.7%.

Madison, real estate agent Dan Bertelson he says the housing market had a history of low innovation before the pandemic. But it also had an unusually strong employment base tied to the University of Wisconsin system, hospitals, biotech, and large employers.

“The perfect storm of why the Madison area hit Gen X was definitely the timing of their careers,” he says.

That meant Gen X buyers were able to enter the fray with tighter balance sheets. In Madison, Berleston says, many have been able to compete with 20% down payments and aggressive financing structures as bidding wars heat up and buyers begin to let go of protection.

In Provo, UT, Kristy Dimmickpresident of the Utah Central Association of Realtors, saw a similar shift.

The market entered 2020 with a median home price of about $330,000. Then it took off as mortgage rates fell and consumer demand grew.

“We had many people who wanted to enter the market because of interest and because of the desire to be at home,” he said.

Most of the buyers who could still win were households moving up bringing equity from previous purchases—buyers, Dimmick says, “who were selling their homes and getting a really large amount of equity,” and then using it to shore up their next offer.

The boom changed more than home prices

Lessons from these metros draw new attention to the supply gap in the housing market, currently estimated at more than 4 million homes, according to the latest estimate from Realtor.com.

And by 2025, that shortage has pushed nearly 2 million Gen Z and potential millennial homebuyers to stay out of the market, missing out on the ability to increase their net worth by 50 years through the compounding benefits of homeownership.

If policymakers are serious about fixing this problem—as many suggest—they need look no further than places like San Diego, where young buyers are cracking some of the nation’s highest listing prices without affordable mortgage options. Or Florida, where ample inventory in 2019 opened the door to wealth for generations.