American First-Time Home Buyers Set Sales Record
First-time home buyers reached the highest market share on record during the past year, according to the latest consumer survey of home buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors.
NAR mailed an eight-page questionnaire in July 2009 to a national sample of 120,038 home buyers and sellers who purchased their homes between July 2008 and June 2009, according to county records. It generated 9,138 usable responses.
“Tax incentives, record high affordability conditions and a pent-up demand brought a record share of first-time home buyers into the market,” he said. “These buyers are critical to housing and a general economic recovery because the market always heals from the bottom up – they absorb inventory, free existing owners to make a trade and stimulate related goods and services.”
“It’s interesting to note the last cyclical peak of first-time home buyers was during the last noteworthy economic downturn, with first-time buyers starting the chain reaction that led the nation out of recession,” according to Paul Bishop, NAR vice president of research.
The number of first-time home buyers rose to 47 percent of all home sales from 41 percent of transactions in last year’s study, and was the highest on record dating back to 1981. The previous high was 44 percent in 1991.
The profile shows the median age of first-time buyers was 30 and the median income was $61,600. The typical first-time buyer purchased a home costing $156,000, down from $165,000 in the 2008 study, and plans to stay in that home for 10 years.