Older and single make up greater first-time buyer group

Today’s first-time homebuyer is older and more likely to be single than first-timers in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Seattle-based Zillow.

Americans are renting for an average of six years before buying their first homes. In the 1970s, they rented for an average of 2.6 years.

“Millennials are delaying all kinds of major life decisions, like getting married and having kids, so it makes sense that they would also delay buying a home,” said Dr. Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s chief economist.

First-timers also spend a bigger chunk of their incomes to buy: In the 1970s, first-time homebuyers bought homes that cost about 1.7 times their annual income. Now they’re buying homes that cost 2.6 times their annual income, according to Zillow.

Part of that can be attributed to the housing markets where millennials are moving: more expensive cities on the coasts, where there are growing job markets.

The average first-time homebuyer is about 33, at the front end of the millennial generation. The median income hovers near $54,340, which is about the same as what first-time homebuyers made in the 1970s when adjusted for inflation.

In the late 1980s, 52 percent of first-time homebuyers were married. Today, only 40 percent are married.