First-Time Buyer Share Edging Up

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2015

First-time home buyers comprised 32 percent of existing-home sales in August, up from 29 percent a year ago, according to the August 2015 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey.

“Sustained net job creation, a low interest rate environment with 30-year fixed rates at below four percent for most of 2015, and better pricing of FHA-insured mortgages appear to be helping first-time home buyers,” according to the REALTORS® survey.

Buyers age 34 and under accounted for 29 percent of sales reported by the respondents. Nearly half of buyers were 35- to 55-years-old. Renters, meanwhile, accounted for 38 percent of sales.

REALTOR®s surveyed report that tight inventory, increasingly unaffordable prices, and weak credit profiles that fail to meet tighter underwriting standards are conditions that continue to work against first-time home buyers.

Source: “Sales to First-Time Buyers: 32 Percent of Sales in August 2015,” National Association of REALTORS® Economists’ Outlook blog (Oct. 6, 2015)