Melibu 10 years ago in my early thirties, I had nothing. I knew a lot of people who had nothing. I suspect that if you dug into the figures a bit, that study would show that a lot of people in their early thirties now have nothing and a lot then had nothing.
So the headline is a bit misleading. Some people now have less than some people had then, but in both age groups a lot of people have/had nothing. A lot of people in their early forties now still have nothing.
The people who are in their early forties now, also had less in their early thirties than people who are now in their early fifities had had in their early thirties.
I think that 10 years ago, a few people who had gotten onto the property ladder in their 20s, had benefitted from the early noughties house price boom.
It's a lies, damned lies and statistics kind of thing. It's all just a convuluted way of saying "Property was comparatively cheap in some of the 80s and most of the 90s, then jumped in the noughties". People in their 20s/30s in the 80s/90s were better able to save and get on the property ladder than people in their 20/30s in the late 90s/00s/10s because of market conditions. If house prices/mortgages/rents are lower, it's easier to save.
It's still shit though, and it's getting progressively worse, for everyone not on the property ladder, whatever their age.