Dan Marois,
Editor – NH and MAINE REALTOR®
By Dan Marois, Editor – NH and MAINE REALTOR®
The latest NAR report reveals an aging buyer pool, changing family arrangements and a growing reliance on real estate professionals.
Remember when buying your first home usually meant getting married, finding a starter house and beginning a family?
The National Association of REALTORS®' 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers suggests that the people buying homes today look quite different from buyers a generation ago. Some of the numbers are pretty surprising. Affordability, higher mortgage rates and limited inventory are part of the story, but so are changing lifestyles, family arrangements and priorities.
When it comes to first-time buyers, their share of the market edged up from last year's historic low of 21% to 22%. As little as that is, it is progress. The median age of a first-time buyer remains 40, compared with just 30 in 2010. Saving for a down payment takes longer, and finding an affordable home has become a challenge in itself.
Surprisingly, 10% of first-time buyers paid cash, the highest percentage ever recorded. Those buyers were more likely to have access to an inheritance, inherited property or other financial assets. Having that kind of money available certainly makes the search easier.
When it comes to who's buying, 47% of first-time buyers were married couples. Single women represented 25%, single men 12%, and unmarried couples 11%. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that buying a home with roommates reached a 45-year high of 5%. When housing costs make it difficult to qualify on one income, sharing a mortgage with a friend starts to look like a reasonable alternative.
Fourteen percent of buyers purchased multigenerational homes, often to accommodate aging parents or adult children, or simply to share expenses. Childcare costs are also influencing decisions. Among buyers with children under 18, the percentage sharing a home to reduce childcare expenses jumped from 11% to 16% in just one year.
Those buying their second or third home tell a different story. The median age of these buyers has reached 62, compared with 36 in 1981. Many are retired or approaching retirement. At this stage of life, the reasons for moving are different. Being close to friends and family now matters more than being near the office. Only 31% of buyers chose a neighborhood for its convenience to work, down from 52% in 2014.
The median homeowner now stays in a property for 12 years before selling, an all-time high. Giving up a comfortable mortgage payment to buy another home at today's rates isn't particularly appealing. Unless there's a compelling reason to move, many homeowners are staying put.
And positive news for Realtors is that 90% of buyers used an agent or broker, the highest percentage in four decades. Among sellers, that number reached 92%, also a record. For-sale-by-owner transactions accounted for just 5% of sales, and nearly two-thirds of those sellers already knew their buyer.
For agents, these numbers are worth paying attention to. The 40-year-old buying a first home, the retired couple looking to move closer to their grandchildren, and the friends pooling their resources to buy a house may have very little in common. But having a Realtor who understands the process and can help navigate it remains important.
Source: National Association of REALTORS®, Jessica Lautz, "Top 10 Takeaways from NAR's 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers," November 5, 2026.