Who Is Still on First? An Update of Characteristics of First‑Time Homebuyers

Donghoon Lee and Joseph Tracy

No 20250811, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: Following the COVID-19 health crisis, home prices and mortgage rates rose sharply. This created concerns that first-time homebuyers (FTBs) would be disadvantaged and would lose ground. Earlier this year, we documented that the share of purchase mortgages by FTBs, as well as their share of home purchases, have actually increased slightly over the past couple of years. It appears that FTBs are holding their own in this challenging housing market. This raises the question of whether the characteristics of FTBs have changed. In a 2019 post, we described the characteristics of these buyers over the period from 2000 to 2016. In this post, we provide an update through 2024.

Keywords: first-time; home; buyers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G5 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-11
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