Nearly 80% of Gen Z wants to own a home by age 30 - here's how much they need to save monthly to buy a house in America's biggest cities

• Gen Zers, the group of Americans born between 1998 and 2016, are eager to become homeowners.
• A new realtor.com analysis estimates how much an 18-year-old today will need to save to buy a house by the time they're 30, in the year 2031.
• Realtor.com calculated the monthly savings needed to buy a house with a 5%, 10%, or 20% down payment, closing costs equal to 3.6% of the purchase price, and no financial help from family.
• To buy a median-priced home in Houston, Texas, in 2031, an 18-year-old would need to start saving around $155 a month.

Generation Z may be young, but they have goals like the rest of us. Namely, to become homeowners.

According to a realtor.com survey, 79% of older Gen Zers - the generation born between 1998 and 2016 - are certain they want to own a house one day (just 4% said they definitely don't want the same).

"Gen Z-ers don't just want to become homeowners; they want to do it at a younger age and we found that they're saving or planning to save for it accordingly," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com.

With prices projected to keep rising, realtor.com calculated how much Gen Z's aspiring homeowners will need to save to buy a house by age 30, using forecasted median home prices from Moody's Analytics for the year 2031, when an 18-year-old today will turn 30.

Read more: 5 millennials who became homeowners in their 20s share their best advice for buying your first house

The median home price in the US is expected to reach $265,000 this year; by 2031, it is forecasted to be $386,310, which assumes a modest annual price growth of just 3.2%, according to realtor.com.

The team also analyzed mortgage data from Optimal Blue and found the typical homebuyer under age 30 had a 7% down payment. To consider different down payment options, realtor.com calculated the monthly savings needed over the next 12 years to complete a home purchase with 5%, 10%, or 20% down, plus 3.6% of the purchase price for closing costs.

"The most important thing they can do is start saving as much as possible early on and let compound interest do the heavy lifting for them," Hale said. The realtor.com analysis assumed the money is held in a savings account with a 3% annual return, compounded monthly. It also assumes the Gen Z homebuyer receives no gift money or windfall from relatives to complete the purchase, an increasingly common circumstance among first-timers.

Keep reading to find out the monthly savings needed to buy a median-priced home in America's 15 biggest cities in 2031, ranked from lowest to highest monthly savings.

Note: The cities listed below represent the largest metropolitan statistical areas in the US.