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Bloomberg News
The typical US homebuyer earns more money and is more likely to pay cash this year. And, increasingly, she is a single woman. Facing limited home inventory, rising prices and high mortgage rates, house hunters were forced to increase their downpayment: For first-time buyers, it reached 8% of the total price, the highest rate since 1997, according to the annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report from the National Association of Realtors®. The average homebuyer's income jumped to $107,000 in 2023 from $88,000 a year earlier. Buyers are getting older, at 35 for a first house compared with 29 in the early 1980s, the report found. The share of recent buyers who were married couples dropped to 59%, the lowest since 2010, while unmarried couples' have remained little changed in recent years at 9%. Increasingly, buyers are single women. The portion of homes bought by single women and single men was roughly the same 40 years ago, but now the rate for women is almost double that of men. The typical single female buyer also tends to be a bit older: 38 for a first home, compared with 33 for single men. As home values keep rising, people need to make more to afford one. About 20% of buyers paid cash in 2023, avoiding the punishing mortgage rates. That's up from 13% in 2021, before interest rates started to rise. "Given the erosion of housing affordability due to higher home prices and mortgage rates, the household income for those who successfully purchased homes jumped by nearly $20,000 and topped six figures for only the second time in our records," said Jessica Lautz, National Association of Realtors®' deputy chief economist and vice president of research.