Michael Sasso
(Bloomberg) — The median age of first-time U.S. homebuyers has climbed to a record 40 as soaring home prices and mortgage rates over the past few years have delayed homeownership for millions of Americans.
The age at which people buy their first homes has risen rapidly since 2021, when the median was 33, according to a National Association of Realtors survey of transactions from July to June 2024. When the survey was first conducted in 1981, the average age was 29.
NAR’s annual Profile of Buyers and Sellers, released Tuesday, paints a picture of a housing market in which younger, cash-strapped Americans are struggling to become homeowners while wealthier, often older groups are able to put down larger down payments and pay cash for homes.
NAR warns that losing ten years of homeownership could cost Americans about $150,000 in equity in the average new home. The current median price of an existing home is $415,200, up more than 50% since 2019. Meanwhile, mortgage rates are roughly double what they were at the end of 2021.
“The impact on the housing market is staggering,” NAR deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz said in a statement. “Today’s first-time homebuyers are accumulating less housing wealth and therefore are likely to move fewer times in their lifetime.”
First-time homebuyers accounted for 21% of the market over the past year, the lowest level since NAR began collecting such data in 1981 and about half the normal level before 2008.
Like first-time buyers, the typical repeat buyer is older, rising from 61 a year ago to 62 this year. They also generally have more money to spend, with the median down payment for repeat homebuyers at 23%, the highest level since 2003. The share of all-cash home buyers is at a record 26%, led by baby boomers who are paying cash for their next home in retirement, Lautz said in an email.
NAR mailed the survey in July and collected 6,103 survey responses from buyers purchasing homes as their primary residence between July and June 2024.
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Last modified: November 5, 2025
