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In late 2025 and early 2026, four major housing-data organizations reported the average age of a first-time home buyer, and their numbers ranged from 32 to 40 years old. Pearl reviewed the underlying methodology behind each estimate, from the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) national buyer survey to the New York Fed's credit-panel data to Redfin's Census-based analysis, to understand not just what the number is, but why it moves so much depending on who is asking.
These four estimates come from different kinds of organizations, each using a different research method. NAR is the National Association of Realtors, which surveys recent buyers directly. MBA is the Mortgage Bankers Association, which analyzes its National Mortgage Database (NMDB) of actual mortgage originations. Redfin is a real estate brokerage that analyzes U.S. Census Bureau survey data. And AEI, the American Enterprise Institute, analyzes the CCP, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Consumer Credit Panel, a large sample of anonymized credit records built with Equifax.
The table below presents the four most recent, widely cited estimates of first-time home buyer age, all covering 2025.
| Source | Data Method | Median Age | Mean (Average) Age | Coverage Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAR | Buyer/seller mail survey | 40¹ | Not reported | Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 |
| Redfin | Census Bureau (CPS-ASEC) analysis | 35² | Not reported | Calendar 2025 |
| NY Fed / AEI (CCP) | Credit-record panel | 34³ | 36.2³ | Calendar 2025 |
| MBA (National Mortgage Database) | Mortgage-origination database | 32⁴ | Not reported | Calendar 2025 |
Four major, currently active sources put the median first-time buyer age anywhere from 32 to 40, an eight-year spread for the same calendar year.
Survey-based data (NAR) reports the oldest age. Record-based data (credit panels, mortgage originations) reports the youngest.
No single number is the answer. The honest answer is a range, and where a buyer falls in that range depends on how the data was collected, not just what year it is.
The chart below shows how each source's own figures have moved across the years it has published.
Redfin and the MBA/National Mortgage Database do not have enough published years to support their own trend line. Redfin reports 38 in 2018 (peak), 36 in 2024, and 35 in 2025.2 MBA/NMDB reports 30 in 2014, 33 in 2024, and 32 in 2025.4
The full year-by-year figures behind both charts, including years where a source did not publish data, are shown in the table below.
| Year | NAR Median (survey) | NY Fed/AEI Median (mean), CCP | Redfin Median (Census) | MBA/NMDB Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | not published by NAR for this year | 35 (37.9)³ | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2007 | not published by NAR for this year | 33 (37.4)³ | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2014 | 31¹ | not published for this year | not published by Redfin for this year | 30⁴ |
| 2016 | not published for this year | 32³ | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2018 | 32¹ | not published for this year | 38 (peak)² | not published for this year |
| 2019 | not published for this year | 33 (36.4)³ | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2021 | 33¹ | not published for this year | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2022 | 36¹ | not published for this year | not published by Redfin for this year | not published for this year |
| 2024 | 38¹ | 33 (36.4)³ | 36² | 33⁴ |
| 2025 | 40¹ | 34 (36.2)³ | 35² | 32⁴ |
Placed side by side at the same scale, the shape difference is the story: NAR's line climbs steadily and steeply since 2014, while the NY Fed/AEI line stays nearly flat across 25 years.
NAR's series moved nine years in a decade, from 31 to 40. The NY Fed/AEI series moved at most three years across the same period, and declined from 2000 to 2016 before recovering slightly.
The reference figures reinforce the flat-line pattern. Redfin's 2025 figure of 35 is below its own 2018 peak of 38, and MBA/NMDB's 2025 figure of 32 is also a year-over-year decline.
2025 is the one year where every source disagrees on direction: NAR's median rose by 2 years (38 to 40), NY Fed/AEI rose by 1 year (33 to 34), and Redfin and MBA/NMDB both declined. That divergence in direction and magnitude is arguably more newsworthy than any one of the four numbers on its own.
A natural follow-up question is how first-time buyer age compares with repeat buyer age, and whether that gap is widening.
| Buyer Type | Median Age (NAR) | Median Age (Redfin) |
|---|---|---|
| First-time buyer | 40¹ | 35² |
| Repeat buyer | 62¹ | 47² |
| Gap (repeat minus first-time) | 22 years | 12 years |
Both sources agree on direction: repeat buyers are meaningfully older than first-time buyers. They disagree sharply on the size of the gap, 22 years versus 12 years.
Under NAR's data, the median repeat buyer, at 62, is within a decade of typical retirement age, a different financial position entirely from the median first-time buyer.
The gap itself, not either age in isolation, is the more stable story across sources.
The most useful follow-up question is which number a reader should actually trust. The table below breaks down how each source collects its data.
| Source | Data Type | Sample | Known Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAR | Mail survey of recent buyers | About 173,000 households mailed; about 6,100 responses (about 1,200 first-time buyers); 3.5% response rate¹ | Small first-time-buyer subsample to generalize from |
| NY Fed / AEI (CCP) | Credit-record panel (Equifax) | 5% random sample of all U.S. credit reports³ | Excludes all-cash buyers entirely |
| Redfin | Census Bureau (CPS-ASEC) analysis | Data from 1976 through 2025² | Different first-time buyer definition than NAR's |
| MBA (National Mortgage Database) | Mortgage-origination database | 5% nationally representative sample of outstanding, closed-end, first-lien mortgages⁵ | Mortgaged buyers only, same cash-buyer exclusion as NY Fed data |
The two credit- and mortgage-record sources, NY Fed/AEI and MBA, share the same structural blind spot: neither can see all-cash buyers, which may skew both estimates younger if cash buyers tend to be older.
NAR's figure of 40 rests on roughly 1,200 first-time buyer responses out of 173,000 households contacted, the smallest and most self-selected sample of the four.
Redfin and NY Fed/AEI land closest to each other, at 35 and 34, a 1-year gap, compared to a 3-year gap between Redfin and MBA/NMDB's 32.
No source is simply wrong. Each measures a real but different population, which is the actual answer to which number to trust.
NAR has run its buyer survey since 1981, when the median first-time buyer was 29. In 2025 it was 40.1,6 NARS record runs back to 1981, and it shows first-time buyers entering homeownership later than they did a generation ago. The NY Fed/AEI series begins in 2000, and over that span its median eased slightly, from 35 to 34.3 Redfin's analysis draws on Census data from 1976 through 2025, though its release reports only 2018, 2024, and 2025, and the MBA figures cited here cover 2014 through 2025.2,4 Because the sources cover different spans and use different methods, they do not give one long-run answer.
For a buyer entering an unfamiliar and often older segment of the housing stock, performance information can carry more weight than it once did. That's one reason home performance data may matter more for today's first-time buyer than it once did.
Pearl SCORE™ is built for exactly that moment. Instead of relying on square footage and listing photos alone, a buyer can look up a specific address in the Pearl app and see what's already documented across the home's five performance pillars: Safety, Comfort, Operations, Resilience, and Energy. For a buyer who's waited longer to get here than buyers a generation ago, that's a way to walk into a showing already knowing more than curb appeal alone would tell them.
Explore a home's Pearl SCORE in the Pearl app before your next showing.
1. National Association of Realtors. "First-Time Home Buyer Share Falls to Historic Low of 21%, Median Age Rises to 40." Nov. 4, 2025. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share-falls-to-historic-low-of-21-median-age-rises-to-40
2. Redfin. "Redfin Reports the Typical First-Time Homebuyer Is 35 Years Old." Feb. 25, 2026. https://www.redfin.com/news/press-releases/redfin-reports-the-typical-first-time-homebuyer-is-35-years-old/
3. AEI Housing Center. "Median First-Time Homebuyer Age at 34 Years in 2025, Little Changed from 2024." Feb. 19, 2026. https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/median-first-time-homebuyer-age-at-34-years-in-2025-little-changed-from-2024/
4. Scotsman Guide, reporting on Mortgage Bankers Association research. "MBA, NAR Spar Over Typical First-Time Homebuyer Age." Dec. 8, 2025. https://www.scotsmanguide.com/news/mba-nar-spar-over-typical-first-time-homebuyer-age/
5. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "Market Snapshot: First-Time Homebuyers." National Mortgage Database methodology. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/market-snapshot-first-time-homebuyers
6. National Association of Realtors. "2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers," Exhibit 1-1, Median Age of Home Buyers, 1981 to 2025. Nov. 2025. https://www.rirealtors.org/clientuploads/documents/NAR/Homebuyers_and_sellers_trend_2025.pdf
