Key Takeaways
- First-time buyers rose to 22% of home purchases in the year ending June 2026, up from a record low of 21%, but their median age stayed at an all-time high of 40, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, released November 5, 2026.
- A record 10% of first-time buyers paid all cash, repeat buyers made up 78% of purchases at a median age of 62, and sellers had stayed in their homes a record 12 years before selling.
The first home in America now arrives at age 40. That is the headline finding of NAR’s 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the association’s annual survey of people who bought a primary residence between July 2025 and June 2026.
The survey drew 7,125 responses. It covers owner-occupants only, and it does not include investors or vacation home buyers, which makes its picture of your competition as a beginner especially useful. You can read the full highlights on NAR’s report page.
A First Home at 40, Often With Family Money Behind It
First-time buyers accounted for 22% of purchases, a small step up from last year’s record low of 21%. NAR stresses how far that remains from normal.
“Affordability remains the biggest hurdle for first-time buyers,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research. “The share of first-time buyers is still about half the historical norm of 40% seen before 2008, and those saving on their own continue to face high rent, student debt, and a shortage of homes they can afford.”
The fresh detail in this year’s report is how the buyers who do break through are paying. A record 10% of first-time buyers paid all cash, and the typical all-cash first-time buyer was 54 years old, compared with 38 for buyers who financed.
| Buyer group | Share of purchases | Median age | Median down payment | All-cash share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-time buyers | 22% | 40 | 9% | 10% |
| Repeat buyers | 78% | 62 | 19% | 30% |
Among first-time all-cash buyers, 28% used an inheritance, compared with 9% of first-time buyers who financed. Inheritance also supplied the down payment for 10% of first-time buyers overall, the highest share on record.
“The housing market is beginning to see a generational transfer of wealth. It’s not yet a tsunami, but it is changing who can buy a first home and when,” Lautz added. “Because people are living longer, the generation receiving that wealth is no longer young adults. Many are reaching middle age before they can buy their first home.”
For buyers who saved the money themselves, the down payment sources show what a realistic first purchase actually looks like:
- Personal savings: 62% of first-time buyers
- Financial assets such as a 401(k), stocks, or cryptocurrency: 30%
- Gifts or loans from family and friends: 25%
- Inheritance: 10%, the highest share on record
The median first-time down payment was just 9%. Most first-time buyers did not wait for 20% down, and that one fact changes the math for a beginner planning a first purchase this year.
Repeat Buyers Run the Market, and Sellers Stay Put for a Record 12 Years
Repeat buyers made up 78% of all purchases, at a median age of 62, matching the all-time high. Their median household income rose to $127,000, up from $111,700 last year, and 30% of them paid all cash.
“Repeat buyers are driving the housing market. Unlike first-time home buyers, repeat buyers have seen their housing equity grow rapidly over the past decade, enabling them to trade up for larger homes or move into more desirable locations. These are often moves by choice rather than necessity,” Lautz said.
Sellers, meanwhile, are moving less often than ever. The median time in a home before selling hit 12 years, an all-time high, and the median seller moved just 30 miles.
That slow turnover helps explain why inventory rose in October even as new listings fell. Owners are staying put longer, so supply reaches the market in a trickle rather than a wave.
- 47% of sellers purchased a newer home
- 36% purchased a larger home
- The top reason for selling, at 22%, was to move closer to friends and family
- 14% of all buyers purchased a multigenerational home
- 4% of all buyers purchased with non-romantic roommates, an all-time high
- 14% of buyers bought to be closer to friends and family, up from 6% in 2000
Households are also reshaping themselves around cost. About 26% of buyers had children under 18 at home, up from 24% last year, while co-buying with roommates and multigenerational purchases both climbed.
Those ownership costs keep rising after the purchase too, as our breakdown of the $16,566 in yearly hidden costs of owning a home shows. Budgeting only for the mortgage payment is the mistake this data warns against.
What Beginner Investors Can Do With This Picture
This report excludes investors, so read it as a field guide to the owner-occupants you will buy from, sell to, and bid against. Five moves follow directly from the numbers:
- Stop waiting for 20% down. The median first-time buyer put 9% down. Run your numbers at a smaller down payment, and watch weekly financing conditions, like the recent dip covered in our report on mortgage applications and rates, before you assume a deal cannot work.
- Shop where sellers have held the longest. With a record 12-year median tenure and the top selling reason being a move closer to family, long-tenure owners making a life-driven move are a real and reachable seller pool.
- Take co-buying seriously. A record 4% of buyers purchased with non-romantic roommates and 14% bought multigenerational homes. A layout with a second living space or a separate entrance fits how buyers are actually purchasing now.
- Price for the buyer who actually exists. Your likely buyer for a starter home is older, may have family help, and is competing with equity-rich repeat buyers. Clean, move-in-ready homes that a 40-year-old first-time buyer can finance beat fixer pricing games.
- Use a strong local agent. A full 90% of buyers and a record 92% of sellers used an agent, while for-sale-by-owner sales matched the all-time low at 5%. The relationships agents hold are where much of this market still moves.
The through line is patience on both sides of the table. Buyers are waiting longer to buy, sellers are waiting longer to sell, and family money is quietly deciding who moves first.
For a beginner, that is not a closed door. It is a clear map of where the openings are: smaller down payments, long-tenure sellers, flexible layouts, and homes priced for the real buyer in today’s market.
Data: National Association of REALTORS®, 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, released November 5, 2026. The survey was sent in July 2026 to 228,250 recent home buyers and drew 7,125 responses from primary residence buyers who purchased between July 2025 and June 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.16 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Results are representative of owner-occupants and do not include investors or vacation homes.
