Currently, home buyers over 70 are under 35
It has become increasingly difficult for young home buyers to enter the housing market in recent years. Between relatively high mortgage fees and surge in home prices, the weight of a home buyer feels insurmountable for Z and millennials.
And that’s shown in the data: In 2024, there were home buyers over 70 years of age than under the age of 35 in the United States, data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows.
According to NAR, the share of “older” baby boomers (1946-1954) home buyers was 22%, while the shares of “younger” millennials (1990-1998) and Gen Zers (1999-2011) were 14% and 5%, respectively. And Jim Reid, Head of Global Macro Research German banks In this week’s note, 46% of the homes purchased in 2024 were over 60 years old.
Young buyers struggling to break into the housing market
Historically, young buyers have created much larger pieces of pie. Median age for first-time home buyers According to NAR, he was 28 years old in 1991. And “ups in home prices and rising mortgage rates have been pushed,” the median age of home buyers up to a record 56-year-old 2024 increased. ” I wrote it Torsten Slow, chief economist at Apollo Academy, cites NAR data.
It is not a great foreshadowing of American dreams. American dreams have long been seen as home ownership. It is usually the biggest asset a person will buy in their lifetime, and home equity can serve as a lovely nest egg for future home purchases or cash out after sale.
“In the long term, properties are assets that are ultimately redistributed from one generation to the next,” writes Reid.
However, many members of the younger generation do not have the opportunity.
“Now that handoff is being stopped due to high interest rates and rising home prices,” Reed added. “At some point, either or both need to be adjusted, or the actual wages of younger people need to rise sharply.”
That’s another core of the problem. Wages aren’t keeping up to home prices. According to US Treasury 2024 Report, Rent and Home Prices are rising faster than income in most parts of the US
As of April, Americans need to make around $114,000 to buy a median home. Realtor.comHowever, the average salary for a person in the US is It’s just over half that.
The income required to buy a home in the US “still remains much higher than before the (Covid-19) pandemic, highlighting the ongoing challenges of affordability even as market conditions gradually rebalance,” Realtor.com chief economist Daniel Hale said in a statement.
The situation in the housing market is tough for Gen Z and Millennials, but Reid suggested that they will eventually break into the housing market.
“In the end, the younger generations Intention Now we own a home held by older generations,” he writes. “We don’t know what the price will be.”