Those of us in real estate have certainly noticed how fast the market has been this past year. Despite record low inventory, more homes are being sold and quicker than any time in recent memory. But who is buying these homes? Of course, everyone’s reasons for buying a home are different, but thanks to extensive research conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), some nationwide trends have started to become apparent.
NAR’s most recent study on homebuyers’ characteristics, the 2021 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report, often shows surprising housing trends, and this year kept that tradition.
This report provides insights into differences and similarities across generations of home buyers and sellers. The home buyer and seller data is taken from the annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, which follows the recent homebuyers between July 2019 and June 2020. It is important to note that while the report captured some data on home buying during the pandemic, it is only part of the picture.
Nationally, Millennial buyers 22 to 30 years (Younger Millennials) and buyers 31 to 40 years (Older Millennials) continue to make up the largest share of home buyers at 37%, with Older Millennials at 23% and Younger Millennials at 14% of the share of home buyers. It is worth noting that Millennials have been the largest share of buyers since the 2014 report.
Buyers aged 41 to 55 (Gen Xers) consisted of 24% of recent home buyers. This group continues to be the highest earning home buyers with a median income of $113,300 in 2019. For the report, buyers 56 to 65 (Younger Baby Boomers) and buyers 66 to 74 (Older Baby Boomers) were broken into two separate categories as they have differing demographics and buying behaviors. Buyers 56 to 65 consisted of 18% of recent buyers and buyers 66 to 74 consisted of 14% of recent buyers. Buyers 75 to 95 (The Silent Generation) represented the smallest share of buyers at 5%.
There’s one other important metric to note. All generations of buyers continued to utilize a real estate agent or broker as their top resource to help them buy and sell their home. I would argue that in today’s extremely competitive market, utilizing a Realtor to help with a housing transaction is more important than ever.