Less house, more home

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 8th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: First-time homebuyers. Rising housing costs and tougher mortgage barriers are pushing many Gen Zers out of the housing market. Consequently, they also postpone other milestones, like marriage and starting a family.

MAST: But homeownership has long been viewed as a cornerstone of the American Dream. WORLD Senior writer Kim Henderson recently met one young couple who are bucking the trend and putting down roots in their community.

KIM HENDERSON: For 2-year-old Annemarie Lester going up the stairs inside her house is fun.

SOUND: [Child going up stairs]

Her parents, Corbin and Marion Lester, bought the house last year. They’re in their late twenties, and like many in his age group, Corbin thought he would rent indefinitely.

CORBIN: I've always just wanted my own space, for sure, but, I mean, I don't think I really craved homeownership at all until I had a family.

But when he did, Corbin discovered homeownership might be unattainable. These days, it takes an average of 7 years for would-be homebuyers to put together a downpayment.

CORBIN: If you're stuck in that rental, you're never going to be able to save up.

Americans are renting longer than ever, pushing the average age of first-time homebuyers to an all-time high: 40 years old. Affordability is one culprit. Scarcity of houses is another.

For many, the American Dream of homeownership feels increasingly out of reach.

SOUND: [Screen door slamming, birds]

The slam of a screen door is a common sound at the Lester house. Annemarie loves being outside, especially by the kiddie pool.

ANNMARIE: Bubbles, [water sounds], bubbles.

So, how did the Lesters do it? How did they buy a home?

The first thing they did was look outside their area. Montana was just too expensive.

CORBIN: We kind of made a spreadsheet listing pros and cons of a lot of the different states we're interested in, homeschool laws, parenting laws, political views, taxes, and South Carolina was pretty high up there.

They were able to get an 1800-square-foot home with four bedrooms, one bath, and 3.8 acres. But not without compromise.

MARION: When we moved in, this was all the counter space, and there's no counter space right there.

Marion says that’s ok.

MARION: Like well, we can do without this for now, like a bathroom. Originally, definitely on our wish list we wanted two bathrooms, but we can make it work for right now, and that's just fine.

Patricia Conaghan is a member of the Christian Real Estate Network. She says most home shoppers have wish lists.

CONAGHAN: I have yet in my 13 years plus of doing this, had someone say, “I want Formica countertops.” No, no, they want their granite, you know, or quartz.

Part of Conaghan’s job as a realtor is helping first-time buyers understand what their monthly mortgage payment will actually look like before they close. In her state of Louisiana, a major piece of that equation is soaring home insurance costs.

CONAGHAN: It's so expensive that, you know, first time home buyers may have enough for their down payment. But then when they start looking at insurance prices, I've seen where it's basically, you know, added five to $600 more a month on their monthly note.

That’s rough, but Conaghan says families are still eager to plant roots and own their place.

CONAGHAN: They walk in when we're looking at the properties, and the kids are like, Oh, this will be my room. And then the other one picks out their bedroom already, and what color, you know they're going to paint the bedrooms and what they're going to do.

And when they find a house they can afford, there’s nothing like her job.

CONAGHAN: As an agent, it just makes you feel great that you're out there helping someone achieve that, you know, that dream, that American dream.

For the Lesters, homeownership hasn’t been all dreamy. They bought a fixer-upper, and it’s been quite a ride.

CORBIN: We just completely redid all the septic last weekend. We had an excavator. We rented one, and finished on Sunday, at 2 in the morning.

Before that, it was HVAC work under the house. Corbin did it himself.

CORBIN: You can stand up when you get down here, but it’s a bit of a pain…

But having their own place makes the Lesters feel like an anchored part of their church and community. They have space to practice hospitality.

SOUND: [Piano]

And room to raise their daughters, one born right in their new master bedroom.

SOUND: [Baby crying]

They even have land to raise chickens.

CORBIN: That one there with the crazy looking comb, she's a Legbar. She also lays blue eggs. [MARION: Her name is Miss Marmalade.]

Nearly 2 million Gen Z and Millennials failed to form households in 2025, casualties of the tough housing market. That’s individuals who, based on historical trends, would have struck out on their own but didn’t.

CORBIN: Come on downstairs. [Annmarie: Downstairs?]

By God’s grace, the Lesters did.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

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