The median age of first-time homebuyers in the US has climbed to a record of 40 as soaring prices and mortgage rates over the last few years delay homeownership for millions of Americans.
The age at which people purchase their first home has climbed rapidly since 2021, when the median was 33, according to a National Association of Realtors survey of transactions from July 2024 through June. In 1981, when the survey was first conducted, the median age was 29 years old.
READ MORE:
NAR's annual profile of buyers and sellers, released Tuesday, portrays a housing market in which younger, cash-strapped Americans are struggling to become homeowners while a wealthier, often older cohort is able to make bigger down payments and pay cash for houses.
The NAR warned that the loss of a decade of homeownership could cost Americans roughly $150,000 in equity on a typical starter home. The median price of an existing home currently stands at $415,200 — up more than 50% since 2019. At the same time, mortgage rates are roughly twice as high as they were in late 2021.
"The implications for the housing market are staggering," Jessica Lautz, NAR's deputy chief economist, said in a statement. "Today's first-time buyers are building less housing wealth and will likely have fewer moves over a lifetime as a result."
READ MORE:
Over the past year, first-time buyers accounted for 21% of the market, the lowest since the NAR began collecting such data in 1981 and about half the pre-2008 norm.
As with first-timers, the typical repeat buyer is also older, rising to 62 this year from 61 a year earlier. They typically also have much more money to spend, with repeat buyers making median down payments of 23%, the highest level since 2003. The share of all-cash buyers matched a record 26%, dominated by Baby Boomers paying cash for their next homes in retirement, Lautz said in an email.
NAR mailed the surveys in July, collecting 6,103 survey responses from buyers who purchased a home between July 2024 and June for their primary residence.
