11 ms·

Look up the median age of a home buyer in 2025: It's 59 years old lol. Boomers and institutional money are doing the home buying. https://www.apolloacademy.c

Look up the median age of a home buyer in 2025: It's 59 years old lol. Boomers and institutional money are doing the home buying. https://www.apolloacademy.com/median-age-of-all-us-homebuyers-59-years/ https://www.apolloacademy.com/median-age-of-all-us-homebuyer... In 2009 the same chart shows that the median age was 39. In the early 80s it was early 30s. Look at congress, we live in a boomer gerontocracy. Not every boomer is wealthy and powerful, but the majority of people who are wealthy and powerful are either descendants of elites/wealthy, boomers, or a very small fraction of younger tech/finance/business owners. The good news is - assuming there's not a big change in immigration rates - if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall.

dragonwriter 11mo ago
59 year olds were born in 1966, so the average homebuyer is from Gen X, not a Boomer.
- rpcope1 11mo ago
  I wonder if the distribution of ages for home buyers is not a normal distribution and maybe the median and standard deviations might tell us something more here. Regardless it's concerning that the average and likely median age has shot up that much.
  - dragonwriter 11mo ago
    Well, since 1980, the median age in the population has also increased by about a decade, which is a significant (but not a majority) contributor to this.
- motbus3 11mo ago
  I'm sure Ol' John is no player when we compare how much investment funds have being pushing to buy homes. Around here, you can't even bid for a small apartment. They get sold to the folks before they start. Paying flat taxes on hundreds of properties doesnt make sense. They don't contribute to generate more jobs. They just replace the buyer and charge extra money that could have be reverted to other expenses that would create a healthier economy by diversity.
ramesh31 11mo ago
>"if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall" But that "10-20 years" is your life, and there's no getting it back. Millennials (the largest generation in US history) have entered into our prime family starting age, and the fact that most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy. At a 90th percentile income, I can just barely be able to afford a home and provide for a family of 3-4 like our parents and grandparents did on a highschool education with no higher skills.
- rpcope1 11mo ago
  Yeah, it definitely feels like the TFR crisis where the actual problems won't show up until it's too late and we're basically turbofucked.
- brailsafe 11mo ago
  > most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy It absolutely is, but as one of those myself, I just refuse to even attempt to pay their prices and will make the best of life while renting and doing other things, not having kids, not owning property unless the ratio changes dramatically. Owning at most a tiny condo for half a million where I live, or moving to the boonies to own marginally more for less is simply not appealing to me, it doesn't unlock anything but a vague sense of security and a shit ton of liability. I hope more people choose the same until the working age tranch of purchasing power isn't as available as they'd like and prices have to drop. It's a major issue, but maybe I should be thankful I never adopted the boomer/genx dreams of owning a place and having a family or whatever. It's something I'm morbidly watching from the sidelines for now (in my early-mid thirties), but there are no circumstances except a miracle side hustle that could create the circumstances for me to actually pursue a mortgage on a place in my city.
  - ramesh31 11mo ago
    >"I hope more people choose the same until the working age tranch of purchasing power isn't as available as they'd like and prices have to drop." You just have to remember and keep in mind that the game is rigged. Housing is far from being a completely free market in this country. The structural political forces entrenched in maintaining home prices is second to none, from the top federal level all the way down to city councils, in a completely bipartisan way. The crisis of '08 was a generational event that we're not likely to see again in our lifetimes. Flattening and dips for sure, but a crash will not be allowed to happen; they'll just print enough to fix it, and leave the burden of inflation to anyone not owning assets.
zeroonetwothree 11mo ago
This is all home buyers not first time home buyers. So it’s not clear what we can conclude. It could be that more retirees are buying a house to retire to rather than renting. I imagine age of first time home buyers has also gone up but there’s no way it’s that high.
- darth_avocado 11mo ago
  First time home buyers is up to 40. Not as bad as 59 but not great either. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share-falls-to-historic-low-of-21-median-age-rises-to-40 https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share...
nitwit005 11mo ago
> The good news is - assuming there's not a big change in immigration rates There has been a big change in projected immigration rates: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61735 https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61735
- ethbr1 11mo ago
  That looks great, for everyone who knows how the US is funded.
lisbbb 11mo ago
59 is really early Gen-X. The Boomers are all in their 60s and 70s now. They're downsizing.
- potato3732842 11mo ago
  They're not downsizing. They're buying smaller houses and renting their current ones.
bdavisx 11mo ago
>if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall. You may be missing something - there's so much money flowing upwards in society that the rich/ultra-rich will simply be able to buy ALL of that real estate as it becomes available. If not ALL, then everything that's desirable.

dragonwriter 11mo ago

59 year olds were born in 1966, so the average homebuyer is from Gen X, not a Boomer.

rpcope1 11mo ago
I wonder if the distribution of ages for home buyers is not a normal distribution and maybe the median and standard deviations might tell us something more here. Regardless it's concerning that the average and likely median age has shot up that much.
- dragonwriter 11mo ago
  Well, since 1980, the median age in the population has also increased by about a decade, which is a significant (but not a majority) contributor to this.
motbus3 11mo ago
I'm sure Ol' John is no player when we compare how much investment funds have being pushing to buy homes. Around here, you can't even bid for a small apartment. They get sold to the folks before they start. Paying flat taxes on hundreds of properties doesnt make sense. They don't contribute to generate more jobs. They just replace the buyer and charge extra money that could have be reverted to other expenses that would create a healthier economy by diversity.

ramesh31 11mo ago

>"if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall" But that "10-20 years" is your life, and there's no getting it back. Millennials (the largest generation in US history) have entered into our prime family starting age, and the fact that most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy. At a 90th percentile income, I can just barely be able to afford a home and provide for a family of 3-4 like our parents and grandparents did on a highschool education with no higher skills.

rpcope1 11mo ago
Yeah, it definitely feels like the TFR crisis where the actual problems won't show up until it's too late and we're basically turbofucked.
brailsafe 11mo ago
> most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy It absolutely is, but as one of those myself, I just refuse to even attempt to pay their prices and will make the best of life while renting and doing other things, not having kids, not owning property unless the ratio changes dramatically. Owning at most a tiny condo for half a million where I live, or moving to the boonies to own marginally more for less is simply not appealing to me, it doesn't unlock anything but a vague sense of security and a shit ton of liability. I hope more people choose the same until the working age tranch of purchasing power isn't as available as they'd like and prices have to drop. It's a major issue, but maybe I should be thankful I never adopted the boomer/genx dreams of owning a place and having a family or whatever. It's something I'm morbidly watching from the sidelines for now (in my early-mid thirties), but there are no circumstances except a miracle side hustle that could create the circumstances for me to actually pursue a mortgage on a place in my city.
- ramesh31 11mo ago
  >"I hope more people choose the same until the working age tranch of purchasing power isn't as available as they'd like and prices have to drop." You just have to remember and keep in mind that the game is rigged. Housing is far from being a completely free market in this country. The structural political forces entrenched in maintaining home prices is second to none, from the top federal level all the way down to city councils, in a completely bipartisan way. The crisis of '08 was a generational event that we're not likely to see again in our lifetimes. Flattening and dips for sure, but a crash will not be allowed to happen; they'll just print enough to fix it, and leave the burden of inflation to anyone not owning assets.

zeroonetwothree 11mo ago

This is all home buyers not first time home buyers. So it’s not clear what we can conclude. It could be that more retirees are buying a house to retire to rather than renting. I imagine age of first time home buyers has also gone up but there’s no way it’s that high.

darth_avocado 11mo ago
First time home buyers is up to 40. Not as bad as 59 but not great either. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share-falls-to-historic-low-of-21-median-age-rises-to-40 https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share...

nitwit005 11mo ago

> The good news is - assuming there's not a big change in immigration rates There has been a big change in projected immigration rates: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61735 https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61735

ethbr1 11mo ago
That looks great, for everyone who knows how the US is funded.

lisbbb 11mo ago

59 is really early Gen-X. The Boomers are all in their 60s and 70s now. They're downsizing.

potato3732842 11mo ago
They're not downsizing. They're buying smaller houses and renting their current ones.

bdavisx 11mo ago

>if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall. You may be missing something - there's so much money flowing upwards in society that the rich/ultra-rich will simply be able to buy ALL of that real estate as it becomes available. If not ALL, then everything that's desirable.