By Maggie Davis, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

From coming of age in the wake of the Great Recession to bearing much of the brunt of today’s soaring home prices, many people seem to think millennials have it pretty bad.

Contrary to that belief, the latest LendingTree study indicates millennials are in a better financial position than their Generation X and baby boomer counterparts at similar ages — particularly regarding net worth, assets, income and spending.

Here’s what we found.

Key findings

* When adjusted for inflation, millennials appear to be in a better financial condition than Gen Xers or baby boomers at similar points. In 2022, millennials (ages 26 to 41 at the time) had a median net worth of $84,941. In 2007, Gen Xers (ages 27 to 42 at the time) had a median net worth of $78,333 in 2022 dollars. In 1989, baby boomers (ages 25 to 43 at the time) had a median net worth of $58,101 in 2022 dollars. That means millennials’ net worth was 8.4% higher than Gen Xers’ and 46.2% higher than baby boomers’ at those ages.

* Millennials are more likely to have assets and carry debt than other generations at similar ages. 99.3% of millennials had assets in 2022, while 97.5% of Gen Xers and 93.8% of baby boomers had assets when they were around the same ages. Meanwhile, 88.1% of millennials carried debt in 2022, compared with 86.9% of Gen Xers and 85.8% of baby boomers around that age.

* Midpoint millennials have a higher median cumulative income than older generations. Millennials born in 1989 earned a median of $446,570 between 2014 and 2023 (ages 25 to 34). When the midpoint Gen Xers and baby boomers were 25 to 34, the median cumulative income was $417,700 and $362,330, respectively, in 2023 dollars.

* Still, millennials face significantly higher rent costs and homeownership hurdles. Adjusted for inflation, the median rent in 2024 for midpoint millennials age 35 is $1,481. That’s considerably more than the $1,251 for midpoint Gen Xers in 2008 and the $1,174 for midpoint baby boomers in 1990. Additionally, a 20% down payment on a median home purchase in 2024 is a breathtaking $85,960, compared with inflation-adjusted amounts of $69,305 in 2008 and $57,107 in 1990 — though comparatively low interest rates benefit millennials.

* Looking at overall expenses, millennials spent more money than boomers, but a smaller portion of their income. When midpoint millennials turned 33 in 2022, younger adults ages 25 to 34 spent an average of $67,883 across all items that year. When Gen Xers were of a similar age in 2006, they spent an average of $69,084 in 2022 dollars, and baby boomers spent an average of $63,761 in 1988. But factoring in average pretax income, those millennials spent 75.8% of their annual income — far less than the 83.2% spent by Gen Xers and 91.0% spent by baby boomers.

Matt Schulz — LendingTree chief credit analyst and author of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How to Take Control of Your Financial Life” — believes prior generations’ struggles have helped prepare millennials.

“I think that the scars from the Great Recession and the pandemic have helped shape millennials’ views on money, forcing them to be more focused on their finances than other generations have had to be,” Schulz says. “That focus has prompted them to learn more about money, get started with investing and savings earlier, become more entrepreneurial and make other financially focused moves that have helped set them up for success. It’s certainly helped that we’ve seen stocks hit record highs.”