The key path
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that the average age people buy their first home in the U.S. has reached an all-time high at age 40.
- First-time buyers represented just 21 percent of the U.S. housing market from July 2024 to June 2025.
- Rising home prices and high mortgage rates may prevent younger Americans from owning a home.
Four years ago, the median age at which people bought their first home in the U.S. was 33. According to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) survey of home transactions from July 2024 to June 2025, the age group has now risen sharply to 40, a record high.
NARR released its annual report of home buyers and sellers on Tuesday, painting a picture of a housing market dominated by older buyers who are able to make large down payments and pay cash for homes.
Meanwhile, younger Americans are struggling to become homeowners, driven in part by rising home prices and high mortgage rates. The median home price in the U.S. rose to $415,200 in September, up more than 50 percent since 2019, per Bloomberg. Mortgage rates are double where they stood in 2021, reaching 6.17 percent at the time of writing for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, compared to 2.9 percent in the first half of 2021.
“The implications for the housing market are staggering,” Jessica Lautz, NARR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research, said in a statement. “Today’s first-time buyers are building less residential wealth and this will result in fewer lifetime moves.”
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Almost a third (32%) of first-time homebuyers were aged 25 to 34, while a quarter (25%) were aged 35 to 44. NAR noted that in the 1980s, first-time buyers were in their late 20s.
Delaying home ownership in life tends to have a long-term financial impact. When people delay buying a home, they lose money they could have earned as the value of the home increases. Shannon McGahan, NAR’s executive vice president and chief advocacy officer, said in a statement that Americans could lose “about $150,000 in equity,” or $150,000 in financial value, by delaying buying a home at age 40 instead of 30.
NAR recorded that first-time buyers represented just 21 percent of the U.S. housing market from July 2024 to June 2025, the lowest percentage since it began collecting the data in 1981.
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First-time homebuyers indicated that high rental prices and substantial student loan debt delayed their home purchases. The average apartment rent in the United States is $1,750 for an average apartment size of 908 square feet, while the average student loan debt in the United States is $39,375.
NAR conducted the study in July, sending a 120-question survey to 173,250 recent homebuyers who purchased a home between July 2024 and June 2025. The sample was randomly selected to be geographically representative of sales in the US NAR.
The key path
- The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that the average age people buy their first home in the U.S. has reached an all-time high at age 40.
- First-time buyers represented just 21 percent of the U.S. housing market from July 2024 to June 2025.
- Rising home prices and high mortgage rates may prevent younger Americans from owning a home.
Four years ago, the median age at which people bought their first home in the U.S. was 33. According to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) survey of home transactions from July 2024 to June 2025, the age group has now risen sharply to 40, a record high.
NARR released its annual report of home buyers and sellers on Tuesday, painting a picture of a housing market dominated by older buyers who are able to make large down payments and pay cash for homes.
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