X post: median first-time buyer age 40

The X post’s central claim is supported by the latest National Association of Realtors data: the typical first-time U.S. homebuyer is now 40 years old. NAR said on November 4, 2025, that the median age of first-time buyers reached an all-time high of 40 in its 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, up from 38 in the prior year’s report and from the late 20s in the 1980s. The same report said first-time buyers accounted for 21% of purchases, the lowest share since NAR began tracking in 1981. ### Where does the “age 40” figure come from? The National Association of Realtors published the figure in its annual survey of recent buyers and sellers. NAR said the 2025 report covers transactions completed between July 2024 and June 2025, and described the market as one of limited inventory and weak affordability. (nar.realtor) Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research, said in the group’s 2024 release that first-time buyers were being pushed older by “high home prices, high mortgage interest rates and limited inventory.” In that 2024 report, the median age for first-time buyers had already risen to 38 from 35 a year earlier. (nar.realtor) ### Are home prices really that far above incomes now? Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies said on January 22, 2024, that the national median sale price for a single-family home in 2022 was 5.6 times median household income, the highest level in records going back to the early 1970s. The researchers said the ratio was 4.1 as recently as 2019. (nar.realtor) The X post’s specific claim that the ratio was 2.3 in 1970 and 5.0 by 2020 is directionally consistent with the long-run affordability trend, but the Harvard analysis available publicly uses 2022 and puts the national ratio at 5.6. The same analysis said price-to-income ratios above 5.0 were once rare and had become common across large U.S. metro areas by 2022. (jchs.harvard.edu) ### What do the metro numbers look like? Harvard’s housing researchers said 48 of the 100 largest U.S. housing markets had a price-to-income ratio above 5.0 in 2022. Seven of those markets were above 8.0. Miami’s ratio was 8.7 in 2022, according to the Harvard analysis. New York’s was 7.1, while several West Coast markets were above 11, including Honolulu at 12.1, San Jose at 12.0 and San Francisco at 11.3. (jchs.harvard.edu) The post’s broad claim that some major metros sit in a roughly 7-to-13-times-income range matches those published figures, though Los Angeles was not named in the excerpted Harvard summary returned here. ### What about the BlackRock claim? BlackRock said on its corporate website that it is “not buying individual houses in the U.S.” and is “not among the institutional investors buying single-family homes.” The asset manager said it does invest in mortgage securities, multifamily properties and financing for new housing construction. (jchs.harvard.edu) BlackRock also said its recent housing investments include new construction of purpose-built single-family rental developments. That means the company is active in housing finance and rental-oriented development, but its own statement disputes the idea that it is directly competing with households to buy individual starter homes. (blackrock.com) ### Why are first-time buyers being squeezed? NAR’s 2025 report said mortgage rates averaged 6.69% during the period it studied. The group also said first-time buyers cited high rent and student loans as major barriers to saving for a purchase. The next official benchmark for this discussion will be NAR’s next annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, while Harvard’s Joint Center continues to update its price-to-income tracking for major metro areas on its housing data pages. (blackrock.com) (nar.realtor 1) (nar.realtor 2)