This article offers a comprehensive macro analysis of the imbalance of young city-dwellers’ housing ideals and reality，explores their difficulties and suggests a coping strategy. It also finds six grounded housing-related conflicts faced by young city-dwellers，namely housing and life cycles，housing and willingness to stay for development，housing and intergenerational transmission of poverty，housing and social stratification，housing and social status，and housing and rejection of outsiders by urban residents. This article also discusses the lurking social risks that may be caused by young city-dwellers’ housing dilemma，and offers advice for decision makers.