Today’s buyers look vastly different from a generation ago 

Stubbornly low inventory and high interest rates took a toll on the housing market in the last year, but perhaps no demographic was affected more than first-time buyers. 

The National Association of Realtors' 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers helps drive home exactly how tough the market was for buyers, illuminating a number of new firsts that illustrate the changing landscape — and demographics — of the American homebuyer.

The disappearing first-timer, and an aging buyer pool

NAR reports that the share of first-time buyers between July 2023 and June 2024 dropped to a new historic low of just 24% of all buyers, a significant decline from 32% the year before. Prior to the housing crisis of 2008, first-time buyers typically accounted for around 40% of homebuyers. 

Additionally, the median age of first-time buyers increased from 35 to 38 in the past two years — another record for the survey. NAR noted that the typical first-time homebuyer of the 1980s was in their late 20s. 

First-timers aren't the only ones getting older: Among all buyers, the median age shot up from 49 years old last year to 56 this year, while the typical repeat buyer was 61 years old, up from 58 last year — both record highs.

Married with(out) children

Buyers are older, but that doesn't mean they're more likely to have children at home. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. According to NAR, 73% of buyers did not have children under 18 years old living at home — another record, and a huge generational shift from the late-'80s when half of buyers had children at home. The percentage of childless buyers has been steadily increasing since 2019, rising eight percentage points in just the past five years. 

However, the number of homebuyers living in intergenerational households — where families may include grandparents — hit a record high of 17% during the period studied. 

Among all buyers, 62% were married couples, up slightly from last year, while the share of married first-time homebuyers dipped two percentage points to 50%. Unmarried couples accounted for 12% of buyers.

Single-women buyers posted the biggest change, increasing from 19% to 24% of all buyers in the course of a year.

One demographic characteristic that has not changed significantly is the racial and ethnic makeup of buyers. White buyers accounted for 83% of all buyers this year, up from 81% last year. While Black buyers recovered some ground after their numbers fell in 2022, they accounted for just 7% of all buyers, while the share of Hispanics and Asians both declined slightly to 6% and 4% respectively. Among first-timers, however, the buyer pool was more diverse, with white buyers accounting for just 68% of the total.

What and where buyers are purchasing, and more takeaways

While some data points were record-setting, others suggested a return to normalcy. 

• '90s-era homes are the norm again: For more than a decade, the typical home purchased was built in the early-to-mid '90s. The trend line took a notable dive during the inventory crunch of 2022 and 2023, falling by about eight years, but appears to have recovered. NAR credits new construction inventory for helping lift the typical home age back up this year. 

• The urban exodus that wasn't: With the pandemic largely in the rearview mirror, how accurate were the reports of a Covid-induced mass migration away from cities? Not very, it seems. NAR's data shows minimal change in where buyers purchased homes during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Things shifted in 2022, with buyers trading urban and suburban life for small towns and rural areas, but that trend largely reverted to previous patterns in 2023. In 2024, more people chose to purchase a home in an urban area than in the years leading up to the pandemic.

• Down payments are up: First-timer buyers in particular are shelling out more cash to secure a home. According to NAR, first-timers typically put down 9% of the home's purchase price in the last year, which is the highest level since 1997. Other recent studies have found that down payments are increasing across the board — doubling in the past four years, according to data from Realtor.com — with a larger share of buyers now putting down more than 20% to temper the effect of rising interest rates.