First-time buyers fell to 21 percent of the housing market, the lowest on record, and the typical first-time buyer is now 40
The 30-second version
The National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, published November 4, 2025, found that first-time buyers made up 21 percent of all home purchases, the lowest share the survey has recorded, and that the median age of a first-time buyer rose to 40, an all-time high [1].
The survey covers primary-residence purchases between July 2024 and June 2025 [1].
Numbers in brackets are the sources, listed at the end.
NAR's 2025 survey of home buyers found first-time buyers at a record-low 21 percent of purchases and a record-high median age of 40, with the first-time share down by half since 2007.
About this story Estimate · November 4, 2025 · rev. 1
- People and organizations
- Trump administration
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- United States
- Evidence label
- Estimate — A valuation, projection or model from a named party (for example Forbes, CBO, a committee staff) with its method and date. Partisan estimates are identified as such. More
What happened
The National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, published November 4, 2025, found that first-time buyers made up 21 percent of all home purchases, the lowest share the survey has recorded, and that the median age of a first-time buyer rose to 40, an all-time high [1].
The survey covers primary-residence purchases between July 2024 and June 2025 [1].
Why it matters
Buying a first home is the main way American households have built wealth. NAR's deputy chief economist, Jessica Lautz, said the first-time share "has contracted by 50% since 2007" and that today's first-time buyers "are building less housing wealth and will likely have fewer moves over a lifetime as a result" [1].
For a voter in their twenties or thirties, the number says that the age at which people like them get into a home has moved from the early thirties to 40, and that fewer of them are getting in at all [1].
The evidence
The median age of repeat buyers was 62 and of all buyers 59. First-time buyers put down a median 10 percent, matching the highest level recorded since 1989, while repeat buyers put down 23 percent [1].
NAR mailed a 120-question survey to 173,250 recent buyers in July 2025 and received 6,103 responses from primary-residence buyers, a 3.5 percent adjusted response rate, with a stated confidence interval of plus or minus 1.25 percent at the 95 percent level [1].
Response and counterpoints
NAR attributes the result to "a housing market starved for affordable inventory" rather than to any single policy, and the survey period spans the end of the Biden administration and the start of the second Trump administration [1]. We do not attribute the record to the current administration; we record it as the state of the market young voters are deciding in.
What remains uncertain
The survey is a sample of buyers who completed a purchase, so it does not measure the people who tried to buy and could not. Response rates are low, as they are for most mailed surveys, and NAR weights responses geographically to represent sales [1]. The 2026 edition is expected in early November 2026 and may move the figures.
Sources cited
- [1]
First-Time Home Buyer Share Falls to Historic Low of 21%, Median Age Rises to 40 — National Association of Realtors, 2025-11-04.supports · Headline and opening paragraphs (21 percent record low; median first-time buyer age 40, all-time high; repeat buyers 62; all buyers 59); Jessica Lautz quotes (share contracted 50 percent since 2007); down payment paragraph (10 percent, highest since 1989); Methodology (July 2024 to June 2025 transactions, 173,250 surveys mailed, 6,103 responses) · checked 2026-10-28 · source N-first-time-homebuyers-01