Elevated mortgage rates, sky-high home prices, tight credit and stagnant wages have all contributed to homebuyers getting older. Newly released data from the annual profile of home buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows just how dramatically this trend has manifested since the financial crisis of 2008.
The median age of homebuyers has hit a new all-time high, with first-time buyers at 38 years old and repeat buyers at a whopping 61 years old. Together, the median age of all homebuyers sits at 56.
“The U.S. housing market is split into two groups: first-time buyers struggling to enter the market and current homeowners buying with cash,” Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research, said in a statement accompanying the report.
“First-time buyers face high home prices, high mortgage interest rates and limited inventory, making them a decade older with significantly higher incomes than previous generations of buyers. Meanwhile, current homeowners can more easily make housing trades using built-up housing equity for cash purchases or large down payments on dream homes.”
The trendline is startling. In 2002 — around the same time that the underlying causes of the 2008 financial crisis took root — there was significantly less separation in median age between first-time buyers (31) and repeat buyers (41).
While the median age of buyers gradually increased over the course of two decades, the COVID-19 pandemic sped it up. Since 2020, the median age of buyers rose by 11 years, including a spike of 5 years among repeat buyers, who now make up 76% of the market — also an all-time high.
The data is part of NAR’s sprawling annual report that includes a wealth of data on buyers, sellers and real estate agents across a wide range of demographics.
While single women have bought a higher percentage of homes than single men since NAR began tracking the data in 1981, that gap has widened in the past two years. The share of homes bought by single women jumped from 17% to 20% and the share bought by single men fell from 10% to 6%.
This movement is more dramatic among first-time buyers, with the share of homes bought by single women rising from 19% in 2022 to 24% now, while the share bought by single men dropped from 18% to 12%.
Homebuyers are increasingly childless. In 2012, 59% of homebuyers had no children under the age of 18. That number now sits at 73%. The median income of homebuyers has also shot up, with first-time buyers earning a median of $97,000 while repeat buyers are making $114,300.
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