Typical seller is older than ever, gets full asking price
An aging seller pool reflects a trend also seen among buyers — but sellers have retained the upper hand, rarely reducing prices or offering incentives.
Key points:
- NAR's 2024 consumer profile found that the typical age of home sellers hit a record high of 63 years old this year, up from 45 in 2007.
- As in prior years, the most common reason for selling was to move closer to friends and family. Home size was another important motivator.
- The typical selller continues to get 100% of asking price, at least for the first four weeks the home is on the market, and fewer sellers offered incentives this year.
This year's annual profile of homebuyers and sellers from NAR highlights a number of trends — and some firsts — that help illustrate how difficult of a market it's been for buyers, and increasingly, more challenging for some sellers.
Inventory constraints and high borrowing rates have caused a major bottleneck in supply as existing homeowners chose to stay in their homes and keep their lower mortgage price. And that appears to be contributing to some demographic shifts as well.
Home sellers are older than ever
Just like homebuyers, sellers are getting older. In NAR's 2024 report, the typical seller was 63 years old, a record high for the survey. Ten years ago, the median age of home sellers was 54, and in 2007 — before the housing crash that ushered in the Great Recession — the typical seller was just 45 years old.
Repeat sellers made up 76% of all home sales while first-time sellers only represented 24% of transactions.
Also similar to buyers, seller households are increasingly child-free. A record 73% of buyers in NAR's survey did not have children under 18 living at home. For sellers, the share increased from 75% to 77% between 2023 and 2024.
While seller households had fewer children, they were more likely to be composed of a married couple. After declining for three straight years, the share of married sellers increased from 65% in 2023 to 69% this year, while the share of single women and men each dipped two percentage points. That's in contrast to buyers: The share of single-women buyers made the biggest jump of all household types, increasing from 19% to 24%.
NAR notes that the typical seller lived in their home for 10 years, which the organization says has stabilized since the housing bust and recession of the early aughts.
Sellers seek proximity to friends, 'just-right' house size
According to NAR, the number one reason why people listed their homes for sale during the period covered by the report — July 2023 to June 2024 — was to be closer to friends and family, which has been consistent for several years. Upwards of 23% of all sellers stated this as their primary reason for moving. The next two most common reasons for selling were related to the size of their existing home — it was either too small (12% of sellers) or too large (11% of sellers) — followed by concerns about the desirability of their current neighborhood (10%).
While other surveys have found that a change in family circumstances — divorce, marriage or having a child — is a frequent driver of home sales, and often what compels sellers to break free of the mortgage rate "lock-in" effect, only 8% of the sellers in NAR's profile listed that as a primary factor.
More takeaways
Securing full asking price: Sellers in the 2024 profile were typically getting 100% of their asking price, which continues to be the highest median since 2002. That held true for the first four weeks the home was on the market; homes that stayed on the market for five to eight weeks sold for slightly less at 98% of list price.
FSBOs didn't fare as well: For-sale-by-owner listings, which represented 6% of all sales — a record low — typically fetched a lower sale price than homes represented by an agent. The vast majority of sellers (90%) worked with a listing agent to sell their home.
Price reductions uncommon: Even though price reductions were on the rise in 2024 compared to the pandemic years, the majority of sellers did not need to lower their sale price to close the deal: 65% never reduced the asking price, and 21% reduced it once.
Little incentive for incentives: Because sellers largely retained the advantage in the housing market last year, few offered incentives to buyers. According to NAR, 76% of sellers offered no incentives while 9% provided assistance with closing costs and 8% offered a home warranty. The percentage of sellers offering incentives fell from 33% last year to just 24% this past year.
Detached homes rule: Even though fewer buyers and sellers have young children at home, they still prefer detached single-family homes over townhomes or condos. NAR noted that 81% of homes sold during the survey period were single-family houses, up slightly from 79% last year.