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15 Things Most Homebuyers Have in Common - How Do You Compare?

Scope out the competition before you put in an offer.

By Heather Bien

Edited by Laura Ratliff

Updated Dec. 17, 2024

When you walk into an open house, it’s second nature to start sizing up the other prospective home buyers. You wonder whether this is their first home purchase, how big of a down payment they’ve saved up, and how many homes they’ve already seen or put offers on.

You may not know the exact wants and needs of every buyer, but one smart homeowner move is to analyze market data from the National Association of Realtors to understand the typical homebuyer better and improve your chances of finding your dream home.

Want to see how you stack up against the other prospective buyers at the next open house? Here are 15 common characteristics of home buyers in 2024.

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Most are not first-time home buyers

If you’re buying a home for the second, third, or fourth time, you’re in good company. Only 24% of home buyers in 2024 are first-time home buyers.

If you fall into that category, however, you can use it to your advantage — you don’t have another mortgage to worry about and can make an offer without any contingencies on another house sale.

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Nearly one in five are veterans or active-duty

Veterans and active-duty military personnel have some advantages in home-buying, including lower interest rate loans and no down payment. Nearly one in five homebuyers in 2024 were either veterans or currently active duty.

The median home buyer is Gen X

The median age of a home buyer is continuing to tick upwards. In 2023, it was 49. Just a year later, it had skyrocketed to 56.

If you’re making an offer on a house, know that your competition is most likely a member of Gen X — and they may have different needs for a home if you’re younger.

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But the median first-time home buyer is a Millennial

If you’re buying a starter home, you’re up against a slightly younger buyer. The median age of a first-time home buyer is 38, which is still an increase from the 2023 median age of 35.

Most home buyers are married

There’s double the buying power behind a majority of home purchases. In 2024, the percentage of home buyers that were married couples increased to 62%.

If you’re buying as a single person, you may need to make more and save more to compete at the table.

But single female home buyers have increased

Despite most home buyers being married, the share of single female home buyers increased to 20% in 2024. Compare that to single males, who comprise only 8% of home buyers.

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Nearly 75% of home buyers don’t have children

Maybe it’s because moving with children is more stressful than moving with only one or two people, but 73% of home buyers in 2024 did not have children under 18 in the home.

This is an increase over previous years and an all-time record.

More buyers are looking for multi-generational living

As homes become more expensive, more buyers are getting creative about making the cost make sense. More than 15% are now looking for multi-generational living options, and nearly 36% of those buyers say it’s due to cost savings.

Most buyers are purchasing previously owned homes

If you’re not concerned with being the first person to live in your home, you’re in good company. A whopping 85% of home purchases in 2024 were of previously owned homes.

For many people, the allure of a new home may not be keeping up with its price, and others may like the charm of older neighborhoods.

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Most people move close-ish to home

In 2024, the median distance between an old home and a new home was 20 miles. This is down significantly from 50 miles just two years ago, in 2022.

Buyers expect to be in this for the long haul

When most buyers move, they anticipate staying in their new home for far longer than the five-year rule, which says that’s the minimum amount of time for a home investment to make sense.

The median time a home buyer said they planned to stay was 15 years, while one in four said they bought their forever home.

Most home buyers use a real estate professional

Navigating the offer, negotiation, and closing process is tricky, and most home buyers lean on a real estate agent or realtor to help them weed through the numbers and paperwork. Many buyers — 86%, to be exact — used a real estate professional’s services.

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The home-buying process is usually just a few months

If you’ve been searching for a home to buy for years, you might be surprised to learn that buyers spend a median of 10 weeks on the home-buying process and typically only look at seven homes.

One in four first-time home buyers had help with their down payment

Do you feel like everyone is coming up with money out of thin air? A quarter of first-time home buyers accepted a gift or loan from a friend or family member to help make the down payment on their home.

Referrals are a top way to find a real estate agent

Not sure how to find a real estate agent? Ask your friends — 40% of home buyers found their real estate agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative.

Bottom line

As these numbers reflect, there’s no one-size-fits-all mold for the average homebuyer. Still, by knowing where you stand among others, you’ll be able to maximize your house hunt.

If you want to increase your buying power compared to other prospective buyers, there are some savvy money moves for homeowners that you may not have considered.

You can borrow cash from your home to make renovations that increase the value of your current house, then leverage that value when you sell and buy again.

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