The age of the typical home buyer is at an all-time high - 59. Here's how that's reshaped demand in the housing market.

By Aarthi Swaminathan and Jessica Hall

Home builders and remodelers are responding to the needs of increasingly older home buyers

The median age of first-time home buyers, 40, and of repeat buyers, 62, are both at record highs, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors.

Deborah O'Connor, 63, wants to downsize from a large Colonial-style home in the next few years. She and her husband are hoping to find a home with a first-floor bedroom, easy parking and not too many stairs to climb when they bring in groceries.

O'Connor, who lives in Massachusetts, also wants a bedroom and a full bath for when her kids are visiting that she could shut down when it's not in use. A loft or third bedroom for other guests would also be ideal.

"I'd be really interested in a smart home so that I'd be able to tap into that with medical devices to keep me at home and out of the hospital as I age. To have a house that has smart technology and has the ability to do remote patient monitoring is important to me," O'Connor said.

"In a perfect world, I wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere - I would be near other people, perhaps able to walk into a village or access a coffee shop so I don't have to drive," she added.

All of O'Connor's friends are also seeking to downsize, she said, and they discuss their preferences all the time. "I would like a place that I can sit outside and read, and I don't want to be near traffic," she said.

As O'Connor and her husband plan their next home purchase, they are set to join an increasingly old cohort of American home buyers, according to a new report.

As these buyers enter the market at a much later stage in life, they are influencing some trends - and builders and remodelers are responding.

American home buyers are getting much, much older

The current housing market is so unaffordable that the only people able to buy and sell homes tend to be older, wealthy or both.

The typical home buyer today is 59 years old, an all-time high, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors released Tuesday. The median age of first-time buyers, 40, as well as repeat buyers, 62, are both also at record highs. In the 1980s, the typical first-time buyer was in their late 20s.

The report tracks transactions from July 2024 through June 2025.

Unlike younger people, who may be buying a home due to the birth of a child or to be close to a new job, people in their 60s and older are not buying out of necessity, Jessica Lautz, deputy economist at NAR, told MarketWatch.

"They're moving because they can, and they can purchase what they would like to at this point in their life," she said.

And the fact that so much housing demand in this anemic home-buying environment is driven by Americans waiting until much later in their lives to make such a move has profound implications for the U.S. housing market and the economy. These buyers have the ability to make bigger purchases, often with cash, which can drive up home prices and make it harder for younger, less wealthy buyers to compete. The NAR said 26% of home buyers paid cash for their home during the survey period, an all-time high.

As buyers age, they are also staying in their homes for longer, which drives down housing turnover and locks up inventory that younger buyers might otherwise buy. Homeowners typically owned their home for 11 years before selling, the NAR said, another record high. In the 2000s, the average homeowner owned their property for six years before selling.

How older buyers' preferences differ from those of younger buyers

Each person has their own idea of a dream home. And those differences are likely to be even more pronounced among generations.

While older buyers are choosing a place in which to spend their retirement years, younger buyers are more focused on finding a place where they can raise a family.

"For a lot of buyers, this is kind of their final dream home where they're retiring," so they have different needs compared with younger buyers, said Kimberly Crouch, a Wilmington, N.C.-based real-estate agent with eXp Realty who has worked with at least four buyers over 62 in the past year.

People over 50 typically look at single-story homes, or at the very least ones with a primary bedroom on the first floor. "They're just thinking about the future and not being able to do stairs," she said. In her area, which is close to the ocean, many older buyers also want to be near the water and prioritize walkability. A screened-in porch is also a nice-to-have element for some buyers, as is a walk-in shower rather than a bathtub.

In contrast, buyers in their mid-30s often think about their kids when buying a home, Crouch said. They often want two stories, depending on their children's ages, and look for office space to accommodate one or both parents working from home. They want neighborhoods in good school districts and fenced-in backyards for pets.

Some of Crouch's older buyers are also moving from areas with a higher median price point, so they're interested in buying - and able to buy - with cash, and still at a higher price than younger buyers might be able to manage, she said. The median home price in her county was $468,000 in September. A hypothetical couple moving from Essex County, N.J., would have sold their home for a median price of $600,000, according to Realtor.com data.

(Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc. MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones is also a subsidiary of News Corp.)

Whether older buyers are able to find a home that suits their needs greatly depends on the local market. Crouch said her market has plenty of single-story ranch-style homes, so buyers have options.

Angela Ballard, a real-estate agent with Coldwell Banker based in Harrison, Ark., told MarketWatch that most of the homes in her area are ranch-style, sometimes with a basement.

In her part of the country, Ballard said, most older buyers have smaller budgets and are looking for smaller homes. "They're usually wanting to downsize and to deal with less maintenance and smaller yards, and to also be closer to town and doctors," she said. The median price of homes in her county is $275,000.

In Ballard's experience, older buyers are also far more flexible than younger ones. "Older people are more willing to get into a home and understand that they can make it what they want after they get into it, [while] younger people want what they see on TikTok the day they buy the house, and they don't have a budget," Ballard said.

How builders are responding

The level of housing demand coming from an aging demographic is also affecting the way homes are built and remodeled.

As the oldest baby boomers turn 80 next year, home builders are keeping close tabs on senior demand for housing.

Some builders are catering to older buyers, particularly because they tend to have more money to spend, Robert Dietz, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, told MarketWatch. With people worried about the economy and their jobs, most builders are struggling to sell homes. But many older buyers are relatively insulated from the vagaries of the economy.

Related: Home builders are struggling, and it's not just because new houses aren't affordable

"They're going to have higher incomes, they're going to have more wealth, so it's easier for them to be able to purchase" a house, Dietz said.

Builders have to a certain extent responded to the demand. When interest rates were far lower during the pandemic, builders scaled up construction of age-restricted housing, such as 55-and-over communities. In 2022, 59,000 homes built were age-restricted, the NAHB found in a report.

That number has since dropped due to higher interest rates and lower demand. In 2024, about 43,000 homes were built in age-restricted communities.

Homes in age-restricted communities tend to be more expensive and larger. They average 2,200 square feet, compared with 2,100 square feet for homes in non-age-restricted communities, and their median sale price in 2024 was $525,000, compared with $421,000 for non-age-restricted homes.

Homes built for older Americans are typically also one story, lack a basement and are more likely to come with patios and porches, the NAHB found.

What remodelers are doing to respond

In the NAHB's remodeling surveys, Dietz also sees a strong runway for growth as people modify their existing homes in order to age in place. With equity-rich homeowners choosing to live in their current home instead of downsizing, "that's a big business environment," he added.

But sometimes they don't even know what types of adjustments they need to make, Vince Butler, a general contractor and home remodeler in Virginia, told MarketWatch.

Butler said he's surprised by how many aging homeowners don't think ahead about safety and maintenance, such as having entryways with no steps, curbless showers or wider doorways should they need a wheelchair someday.

"Clients are open to ideas once things are explained - there's acceptance. That's the biggest difference from 20 years ago, when even 80-year-old buyers would say, 'I'm not ready for that yet,'" said Butler, the president of Butler Brothers Corp. and a certified aging-in-place specialist with the NAHB. "Boomers now have had to deal with their parents, and they are more willing to embrace ideas once options get presented to them."

Building a house with accessible safety options is less costly than trying to retrofit homes after they're built, so planning ahead for aging makes sense, Butler said.

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