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Here’s how old the typical U.S. homebuyer is today
It is a marker of the challenges of getting on the property train in the U.S. these days: The typical homebuyer today is older than ever, as well as wealthier, new data shows.
The average age of homebuyers in 2024 was 56, a record high, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), highlighting the impact of soaring housing prices and elevated mortgage rates. That’s up from 49-years-old last year, the trade group found.
First-time buyers also tend to be older. The median first-time buyer this year was 38-years-old, up from 35 in 2023. Roughly a quarter of those getting into homeownership were first-time buyers, down from 32% last year and the lowest share since NAR started tracking those numbers in 1981.
“First-time buyers face high home prices, high mortgage interest rates and limited inventory, making them a decade older with significantly higher incomes than previous generations of buyers,” NAR deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz said in a statement.
A record share of U.S. homes are valued at $1 million or more, with tight supply driving prices up to record highs across the nation, a recent Redfin report shows. In the largest U.S. cities, even people with relatively high incomes struggle to afford homeownership.
Through September, the price of single-family homes rose 3.4% from a year ago, according to CoreLogic. The median sale price in September was roughly $427,500, according to Redfin.
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What to know about Nevada
Nevada, with an economy largely based around tourism and hospitality surrounding Las Vegas, is home to a significant working class population. Both Trump and Harris announced no-tax-on-tips policies in Nevada earlier this year, underscoring the dominance of service industry workers in the Silver State.
Although a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won Nevada since 2004, Democrats’ margin of victory has decreased in recent years. The Silver State’s economy, dependent on the hospitality industry, was among the most impacted by pandemic closures in 2020, leading to a much slower recovery than in other states, and spurring frustration with Democrat-led policies.
In 2022, Republicans flipped the governor’s mansion, and the state was home to the closest Senate race in the country, suggesting that in 2024, it could be seriously in play for Republicans even at the presidential level. But Nevada, a state with high population turnover, has historically posed polling difficulties. And the largest voting bloc — more than 30% of voters — are registered as nonpartisan in 2024.
How Nevada voted in 2016 and 2020
All but two counties backed Trump in the last election — but those two Democrat-voting counties, home to Las Vegas and Reno, make up the bulk of the state’s population. President Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election by more than 33,000 votes, and Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016, besting Trump by just over 27,000 votes.
Major races in Nevada
Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown are facing off in a key Senate race in Nevada as Democrats fight to hold onto control of the chamber. Brown, a 40-year-old businessman and former Army captain who lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary, is aiming to unseat Rosen in her first reelection bid and deliver the GOP its first Senate seat win in the Silver State since 2012.
