First-time homebuyers made up 26% of homebuyers as of June, down from 34% last year, according to a new report on buyer and seller demographics from the National Association of Realtors. This marks the lowest share of first-time buyers in the market since NAR began tracking this data in the ’80s.
First-time buyers are also typically older than they were a year ago, and they’re older than they’ve ever been, going from 33 years old to 36. The typical seller is also older, up from 56 last year to 60 years old this year.
The share of white and Hispanic homebuyers increased, while the shares of Black and Asian-American buyers decreased, likely because of declining affordability, Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights for the National Association of Realtors, told The Dallas Morning News.
“We know that Black renters are paying a disproportionate amount on rent and that rental prices have also gone up over this time period,” she said. “Given that, it would be harder for a Black renter to be able to save for a down payment on a home as well as closing costs.”
The desire for affordability has caused cities farther away from established job centers to boom across North Texas over the last few years, and nationally, the share of buyers who purchased homes in small towns and rural areas was the highest ever recorded.
The median distance between buyers’ previous home and the home they moved from was 50 miles this year. This is a huge change from the previous few years, when buyers would only move about 15 miles.
Work-from-home trends certainly influenced that, Lautz said, but she added that “we are also seeing a lot of people just move to a further location because of affordability, and because they wanted to be closer to friends and family.”
When the market was at its peak and bidding wars were common, buyers more frequently turned to cash offers to compete, so the share of buyers financing dropped from 87% in 2021 to 78% in 2022.
Dallas-Fort Worth experienced record-high home prices earlier this year on top of rising mortgage rates, which have now surpassed 7%.
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