The milestones associated with adulthood — buying a home, paying off student debt, and starting a family — have become dramatically more difficult to achieve. The issue is not that younger generations reject responsibility or lack ambition. Rather, it is a rational concern about affordability, specifically economic costs and barriers that Generation Z did not create. 

Start with housing. From the founding of our nation, home and land ownership have been cornerstones of the American dream that symbolized stability and stimulated upward mobility. In just under two decades, the average age of an American homebuyer rose from 39 to 59 years old.  

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