Longest government shutdown in history
The federal government shutdown is tied for the longest on record as Democrats push for health care subsidies to be included in funding deals.
Housing remains scarce, expensive and unaffordable, and the rate of first-time homebuyers is at an all-time low.
In its 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers released on Nov. 4, the National Association of Realtors said that only 21% of home buyers made a first-time purchase in the 12 months ending in June 2025. This is only about half of the long-term average share of 38% recorded up to 1981.
Meanwhile, the average age of first-time buyers has risen again to 40 years old.
“The impact on the housing market is staggering,” NAR Deputy Chief Economist Jessica Lautz said in a statement. Lautz said the market is becoming increasingly polarized: “Buyers with significant home equity are making large down payments and all-cash offers, while first-time buyers continue to struggle to enter the market.”
The percentage of homes purchased all in cash also reached a record high of 26% over the past year.
The report’s findings could say as much about the broader U.S. economy as they do about the housing market. Homeownership continues to be a reliable strategy for building wealth across generations. According to the Aspen Institute’s 2024 report, renters have a median net worth of just $10,400, while homeowners have a median net worth of about $400,000. Additionally, fewer than half of all renters have positive cash flow, meaning they have money left over after covering all their essential household expenses.
But with fewer and fewer Americans entering the market for the first time, they are being cut off from those opportunities.
This grim finding comes as no surprise to anyone who follows the housing market. Home prices hit a new all-time high in 2024, with a median price of $412,500. Using a traditional lender’s debt-to-income ratio of 31%, a borrower would need an annual income of at least $126,700 to finance a home of that price, according to calculations by the Harvard University Joint Housing Research Center.
However, according to the Joint Center’s 2025 National Housing Situation, in 2023, the latest available data, half of all renters were “cost burdened,” meaning they were spending more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities. This makes it difficult to save money for a down payment or final purchase.
