Under 30 and think you'll never own a home? Here's what a star housing strategist recommends.

For young people seeking the American dream through homeownership, the best option at this point may be to buy a major fixer-upper in a less-than-perfect neighborhood.

"Well, one thing that's going on within the housing market is you're seeing — and this is also with the 21st Century housing bill that passed just several months ago — is you're going into blighted areas and investing in the rehabilitation of those homes. And that's actually a much cheaper way of owning a home than otherwise," Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, said on Sozzi Unleashed .

"Detroit's the perfect example of this," she continued, "where you had an economic revival with blighted areas, with run-down areas and investment in those areas. You can get a home for a massive discount to what you would have in the more established areas. And these areas are getting also economic investment from corporations. And you're seeing real revival."

Whitney is credited with spotting the housing market meltdown more than a decade ago as a star Wall Street analyst.

"Young people are supposed to be, you know, risk takers, [so doing that] would make a lot out of sense," she added. "And there are still urban areas. So there's still where they want to be. Young people want to be in urban areas. This is just a different take on it."

The realities facing many would-be young homebuyers are stark amid sky-high mortgage rates and rising costs of home ownership and maintenance.

About 9 in 10 adults younger than 40 say it's harder for young adults today to buy a home than it was for their parents' generation, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Since 2019, home prices in the US have risen faster than young adults' incomes, according to the Pew Research data.

Between 2019 and 2024, the inflation-adjusted median home value rose 30%, Pew noted, while the inflation-adjusted median household income for households headed by those under 40 rose only 9%.

Whitney thinks the challenges facing housing will persist for some time to come.

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, host of the Sozzi Unleashed morning show and the Power Players with Brian Sozzi podcast, and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn . Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.