Yes, Millennials Really Are Buying Homes: Here’s How.

Brad and Jami Pettiford bought their home in October 2015, because they were sick of paying rent. With a three-month-old daughter and a preapproval letter for a $330,000 mortgage, the couple figured a suburban Detroit starter home would be a sound place to park some money and hopefully earn a modest return.

They found a 1,600-square-foot brick bungalow with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a 0.12-acre yard—ample space for their dog and a hot tub. The 1940s home appeared to be in good repair, was in a well-regarded school district and required just a 20-minute commute downtown. They paid $162,000, put 10% down and figured they would stay for up to five years.  

It’s a classic story of American homeownership, and the Pettifords check many of the likely owner boxes: They’re married and now have two children. Their parents own homes, they live in an affordable metro area, have college degrees and paid off their student loans before buying.

But they differ from the prototype in one important way: They were under 30 when they became homeowners.  

Brad and Jami were among the 37% of people ages 25 to 34 that owned homes as of the end of 2015 (the most recent data analyzed by housing finance researchers at the Urban Institute). All told, about 7.6 million Millennials owned homes in the United States in 2015.

That’s right, the Millennial homeowner is not some one-in-a-billion, mythical unicorn. Under the right social and economic conditions, today’s twenty- and thirtysomethings are buying, particularly as they get married and start families.

“I view it a lot like the idea of going to college after high school,” says Brad, now 32 and working in the mortgage industry. “It was just kind of the thing you do next. All my friends own homes.”  

As a 29-year-old renter, who shared a Manhattan two-bedroom with three roommates until last year, I relate to the urban Millennials who are probably alternating between awe and anger right now. Some of you may even be shouting at your screens. You’re not crazy.

The generational homeownership gap is real. A substantially smaller share of Millennials—born between 1981 and 1997—own homes (32%) than do older generations (the rate is 60% for Gen X and 75% for Baby Boomers). Even the stronger-than-you-probably-expected 37% of older Millennials who own lags the 45% of Gen Xers and Boomers who did so at the same age. Demographics, economics and social trends are working against many of us—but they are not working against all of us.

Who is the Millennial buyer? “They are disproportionately married. They are disproportionately well-educated and more affluent. They are disproportionately white,” says Laurie Goodman, co-director of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

Goodman’s research shows that marriage is the single biggest predictor of whether a Millennial owns a home, with matrimony increasing the probability of being an owner by 18 percentage points. Having a child increases the likelihood of owning a home by 6.2 percentage points and having a parent who owned a home increases someone’s probability of owning by 10.9 percentage points.

Meanwhile, two burdens Millennials face to a far greater degree than previous generations—student debt and high rent (that is rent consuming more than 30% of your income)—can also reduce the likelihood of becoming a homeowner, Goodman found.

“At age 60 I would expect the [Millennial] homeownership rate to be less than Boomers at the same age, but I would expect the difference to shrink from where it is now,” says Goodman. “There will still be a gap, because the homeownership rate is very different by race and ethnicity, and the Millennial generation is far more racially and ethnically diverse than other generations.”

So many trends weigh against Millennial ownership: We tend to favor big cities with high rents, and many of us are saddled with student debt. We are also marrying and procreating later. Nevertheless, survey after survey shows we do want to own homes someday—and some of us are subverting the macro trends to do it.

Michelle Kafka, 28, and her husband run a marketing company out of Los Angeles but live in Orlando, where homes are more affordable and both their families live. Clark Ackerman, 23, lived with his parents for a year after graduating from college to save up for a 15% down payment on a home in Bloomington, Indiana. (Moving back home is not unusual. Buying a home with the money you saved is.) After renting an apartment together for six years, Justine Boucher and her fiance decided they wanted a house more than a wedding. So in February 2017 they put down around 5% on a $371,000 colonial outside of Boston.

“We knew we would get married some day, but we also knew the financial commitment of a home would be more significant and more life-changing than marriage,” says Boucher, now 31. “We looked at the numbers and said if we pursue paying for a wedding that would set us further back on our goal of buying a house.” They’re now engaged and will be married in September.  

Boucher is not alone. It has long been clear that coming of age in the throes of the recession has made Millennials thrifty and wary of taking on too much debt. We value mobility and rely on technology, but we are not some alien species that shuns responsibility and wants to live inside our smartphones. We’re just taking a longer path toward, for many of us, the same destination.

“For my generation, you tried to achieve homeownership as early as you possibly could. You skimped on vacations for years so you could save for a down payment on your first home,” says Goodman, a Baby Boomer. “The actuality is this generation is less mobile than my generation was at the same age, but you value that option of being able to pick up and move more.”

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.