Single Buyers Are Growing

The profile of first-time homebuyers in the U.S. is changing, according to researchers at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. In a paper titled “The Shifting Profile of First-Time Homebuyers: 1997-2017,” researchers found that in the past 20 years, there has been a significant shift from married households to never-married households among first-time homebuyers. To examine trends in this group of homebuyers, researchers used the 1997-2017 American Housing Surveys. The 2017 AHS suggests that first-time homebuyers purchased approximately 1.8 million housing units in 2016, making up approximately 1.5% of U.S. households that year.

“While discussions of first-time home buying often tie homeownership entry to life-stage changes like marriage and the birth of a first child, a growing share of first-time homebuyers do not fit this profile,” the paper stated. According to AHS, 35% of first-time homebuyers in 2017 had never been married, compared to 23% twenty years prior. Married homebuyers made up 61% of the first-time homebuyers in 1997 and declined to 46% in 2013. But, that percentage increased over the next three years, hitting 52% in 2017. Surprisingly, the average age of first-time homebuyers hasn’t changed very much in 20 years. In 2017, the mean age for first-time homebuyers was 34, compared to 32 in 1997. The group hit its youngest average in 2009, with the average first-time homebuyer was only 30 years old.

Source: HousingWire