Millennials are in their prime home buying years, but several factors hinder their homeownership goals.

The age group, defined by the Pew Research Center as those born between 1981-96 or ages 25 to 40, only makes up 43% of homeowners, the lowest homeownership rate of any generation, according to a Legal & General survey. Millennials are spending the highest percentage of monthly income on homeownership costs compared to other generations, Hometap found. Student loans also weigh heavily, with a third of college-educated people saying the debt greatly impacts their home buying capacity.

Still, millennials make up the largest home buying group in the U.S. and they are borrowing on a majority of the homes in the nation’s largest cities, according to a LendingTree report. The top ten metro areas where they've taken out the greater share of mortgages share common characteristics: vibrant city life and easy access to the outdoors; affordable down payments or promising equity growth; and most importantly, high-paying technology jobs.

“They make up the largest share of homebuyers in many of the nation’s largest metros,” said Jacob Channel, LendingTree senior economic analyst and report author. “As they continue to get older, get married and start families, the homeownership rate among millennials is likely to rise even further."

LendingTree analyzed nearly 480,000 mortgages given to millennial borrowers in the nation’s 50 largest metros in 2021 and ranked the cities where lenders were offering the largest share of mortgages to that age group. Local mortgage experts told National Mortgage News about what makes these cities millennial magnets.