Number of First-Time Homebuyers at All-Time Low

Buying a home feels like chasing a mythical creature these days. You think it’s just around the corner if you cut enough oat milk lattes and stop buying “unnecessary” things like soap. Turns out it’s not the lattes. It’s the fact that home prices and mortgage rates are living their best unbothered lives in the stratosphere, while the rest of us homebuyers are trying to piece together a down payment with good vibes and a half-used Amazon gift card.

Millennials are becoming “first-time homebuyers” at 38

2024 had the lowest number of first-time homebuyers since 1989. Yeah. People who were born the same year the Berlin Wall fell are still renting. The average first-time buyer is 38 now — which is basically retirement age in TikTok years — and economists are gently suggesting that if we ever do buy, we’ll probably have to work until we’re 112 to pay it off.

Prices went up, demand went down, and logic left the chat.

And you know what’s special? Even though fewer people are buying, prices still keep climbing. Supply and demand said, “Actually, we’re divorced now.” Because usually, when fewer people want something, prices dip. But no. Housing is like, “not me, I’m different.” What was the median price of a home in May? $427,800. That’s up seventy thousand bucks from 2021. Seventy. Thousand. You know what hasn’t gone up seventy thousand dollars? Salaries. Not even close.

Also, to afford the monthly payment on that “average” house in 2024, you need to make $126,700 a year. Sure, Jan. That’s double the median individual income. So yeah, it’s no wonder people are choosing to rent, which, for the record, is now officially cheaper than buying for the first time since 2006.

Everyone’s frozen — buyers, sellers, and the Fed.

And it’s not like sellers are doing much better. They’re stuck too — like, “I’d love to sell this house, but nobody wants to buy it at these rates, and I’m not gonna swap my 3% mortgage for a 7% one just for funsies.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s out here scribbling notes to Jerome Powell like it’s middle school and the Fed is his crush, yelling about how the high interest rates are ruining everything. And Powell’s just blinking back like, “Bro, your trade policies aren’t exactly helping either.”

So here we are. Stuck in housing limbo. The dream is technically still there, but it’s like behind a velvet rope, guarded by inflation, economic chaos, and a down payment requirement that would make your grandma weep into her mortgage-free doily-covered home from 1972.

And the big question now? Not even “when can I buy a house?” but more like… “should I?” Because if this is the dream, it’s starting to feel a little bit like a prank.