Older adults who have built equity over many years are in the best position to purchase homes in today’s roller coaster market, NAR data shows.
Baby boomers are proving to be the big movers in real estate, comprising the highest share of buyers and sellers nationwide, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2023 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report. Older adults may have been more insulated than other generations from the roller coaster housing market over the last year, tapping into record equity to sell their homes at premiums. Baby boomers also have been motivated to downsize and move closer to family.
Baby boomers—people ages 58 to 76—accounted for 53% of sellers and 39% of buyers between July 2021 and June 2022, the most of any generation, NAR’s report shows. “Baby boomers have the upper hand in the homebuying market,” says Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research. “The majority of them are repeat buyers who have housing equity to propel them into their dream home, be it a place to enjoy retirement or a home near friends and family. They are living healthier and longer lives and making housing trades later in life.”
Millennials, once the leading drivers of the housing market, are now playing second fiddle, comprising about 28% of buyers, according to NAR data. Millennials were the largest homebuying force from 2014 to 2022.
First-time home buyers, who don’t have the advantage of leveraging a previous sale for a down payment on a new home, have faced headwinds in the latest housing cycle, like higher mortgage rates. Seventy percent of younger millennials, ages 24 to 32, and 46% of older millennials, ages 33 to 42, were first-time home buyers. These age groups were more likely to fall within this segment of buyers than others, according to the report.
