First-Time Buyers Are Now Pushing 40 as Millennials Wait for a Market That Never Breaks
BREAKING NEWS
By Favoredjane
The youngest first-time homebuyers in the U.S. aren’t that young anymore. In today’s unforgiving housing market, house hunting has become less a milestone of early adulthood and more an uphill battle for those creeping toward middle age.
“No one in their young 20s is buying homes,” said Ricky Voong, a real estate agent in Southampton, Pennsylvania. He’s watched his clientele grow noticeably older in recent years and more frustrated.
Among them are Hahmie Lee, 37, and her husband David Matozzo, 31, who have been searching for a home near Philadelphia for more than two years. With their 7-year-old daughter, Luna, in tow, the couple is determined to find a place they can afford and repeatedly coming up short.
“I definitely took my time, and now I’m just regretting waiting,” said Lee, who works in insurance. Matozzo is a police officer. Despite their combined incomes, prices have surged far beyond what they expected.
Last month, Voong showed them a modest single-family home in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. It sold for $209,000 in 2019. Today, it’s listed for nearly $500,000 more than double the price in just five years.
“There is a lot of competition,” said Lee, noting that they’ve been outbid “many times.” Voong added that it’s common for homes in the area to draw three or four offers within days of being listed.
With mortgage rates still elevated and housing supply critically low, today’s market is freezing out many first-time buyers. And while prices have cooled slightly in some regions, affordability remains a major hurdle especially for millennials, a generation already hit hard by student debt and years of stagnant wage growth.
Now nearing 40, many would-be buyers are finding that the longer they wait, the farther away homeownership feels.
