Did Millennials reject ownership or did we just get priced out of it?

For years, we heard that millennials and Gen Z didn’t want to own anything.

The common rhetoric was that millennials would rather share cars then own them, rent clothes instead of buying them, and maybe even co-live instead of buying homes. We were “redefining ownership” by prioritizing experiences and rejecting old adult milestones. And money flowed to startups in the shared economy space.

Over time, this ‘truth’ quietly faded as millennials grew up. While many were romanticizing this as a lifestyle choice, we were just struggling to buy anything in a traditional sense.

Recently I’ve noticed a number of startups surging to help younger people achieve ownership, in an entirely new way.

🏠 Take housing: Rising home prices and stagnant wages have made it almost impossible for many to save for a traditional down payment, and we’re seeing a wave of startups tackling the gap head-on:
HomePace helps homeowners get upfront cash in exchange for a share of their home’s future value when they sell it.
Divvy Homes has raised over $2 billion to expand rent-to-own options, giving renters a path to buy when they’re ready.
Bonus Homes raised $15 million to help homeowners extract equity from a first home to buy a second.

Each of these models exists because the desire to own hasn’t gone away — the reality of affording it did.

And what happened to the shared economy?
🚗 Remember Car2Go, Enterprise CarShare, and Zipcar? They soared during the 2010s as millennials delayed buying cars. At its peak, Zipcar had over 1 million members worldwide. But despite the buzz, US vehicle ownership actually increased during that same decade. Today, we’re buying cars at record levels: nearly 92% of US households have access to at least one vehicle.

👗 And clothing rental: The story was the same in closets: startups like Rent the Runway and Trunk Club rode the wave of “ownership is dead.” Rent the Runway went public with a valuation over $1.5 billion at its peak. But the core use case was occasional. Most people didn’t rent daily wear forever — they used these services to stretch budgets, access luxury, or experiment with style. As incomes grew, many returned to buying staple wardrobes.

So many “shared economy” stories didn’t redefine ownership for fun — they patched a broken system. This new crop of startups are about building bridges back to ownership.

It makes me wonder, how many generational trends aren’t really lifestyle choices but survival tactics? Maybe we weren’t so different from our parents. Maybe we just had worse options.

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