Housing insights: Typical first-time buyer 40 years old

Washington, D.C. – (Realty News Report) – For first-time buyers, getting a jump on building wealth through early homeownership seems to be slipping away. At the other end of the spectrum, equity-rich homeowners are sitting pretty.

“Unfolding in the housing market is a tale of two cities,” National Association of Realtors Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Jessica Lautz said in a new report. “We’re seeing buyers with significant housing equity making larger down payments and all-cash offers, while first-time buyers continue to struggle to enter the market.”

These are takeaways from the National Association of Realtors 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, which examined transactions between July 2024 and June 2025 to provide insights on the housing market.

The lack of affordable homes on the market has translated into a smaller share of sales for first-time buyers whose typical age reached an all-time high of 40, according to NAR. The median age of all buyers was 59, while the typical age of repeat buyers was 62, also a new high.

The study found that first-time buyers comprise just 21% or about one in five home sales – an amount well below the historic norm of 40% prior to 2008, according to NAR. In the 1980s, the typical first-time buyer was in their late 20s. First-time buyers said high rents and student loans are the top barriers to saving.

“The historically low share of first-time buyers underscores the real-world consequences of a housing market starved for affordable inventory,” Lautz said. “The share of first-time buyers in the market has contracted by 50% since 2007 – right before the Great Recession. The implications for the housing market are staggering. Today’s first-time buyers are building less housing wealth and will likely have fewer moves over a lifetime as a result.”

“For generations, access to homeownership has been the primary way Americans build wealth and the cornerstone of the American Dream,” said Shannon McGahn, NAR executive vice president and chief advocacy officer. “Delayed or denied homeownership until age 40 instead of 30 can mean losing roughly $150,000 in equity on a typical starter home.

Down payments have been on the rise across the board for all types of buyers, according to NAR. Repeat buyers put down a 23% median down payment and 30% were all-cash buyers.

Among all buyers, all-cash transactions reached a record high of 26%, up from just 7% in 2003. The typical down payment for all buyers was 19%.

By comparison, first-time buyers put down 10%, the highest level since 1989. They tapped into personal savings as the top source for down payments (59%), followed by financial assets such as a 401(k), stocks, or cryptocurrency (26%), and gifts or loans from family and friends (22%).

Other highlights of the study:

88% of all home buyers used an agent or broker.

91% of sellers used an agent.

Sellers spent a median of 11 years in a home before selling, an all-time high.

61% of all homebuyers are married couples, 21% are single women, 9% are single men, and 6% are unmarried couples.

50% of first-time buyers are married couples, 25% are single women, and 10% are single men.

Top neighborhood factors are the quality of the neighborhood (59%) and convenience to friends and family (47%).

Home searches took a median of 10 weeks, the same as last year.

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