MW Who can actually buy a house today? Meet the 'elite' buyers achieving the American dream.

By Aarthi Swaminathan

High home prices and interest rates didn't deter these three sets of first-time home buyers

The share of first-time home buyers who bought a home in 2024 fell to a historic low, according to the National Association of Realtors.

When it came to purchasing her first house, the home-buying process was the easy bit for Emma Kerr. The hard part was deciding what to buy.

Kerr, 25, began her house hunt at the start of 2024 for two reasons: She wanted to stop paying ever-rising rents, and she wanted to find a home for her and her fiancé, to whom she had recently gotten engaged. Her plan was to buy a house for about $300,000 or less in Greenville, S.C.

Even though mortgage rates and home prices were both high, she was determined to achieve her goal.

"I wanted to invest in a property and myself," Kerr told MarketWatch.

But when they hit the road to look at houses in person, Kerr's real-estate agent, Coldwell Banker Caine's Angela Reid, was surprised by how buyer-friendly the local market had become, with more for-sale listings and waning competition. It was a stark contrast to three years ago, Reid said, when buying a house was a mad dash.

"If a buyer didn't jump on a house immediately, they were definitely going to lose out," Reid recalled. Buyers would skip getting an appraisal of the home's value, waive the traditional home inspection before making an offer, compete against multiple offers from other buyers, and even accept homes that needed repairs as is. Back then, Reid felt uncomfortable about her first-timers being put in such situations, and worried that they may not have realized the full consequences of their actions.

Kerr, in comparison, was able to take her time. After spending months looking at homes, she finally found a perfect place that was almost within her budget. She decided to pull the trigger, and even got it below the list price.

Kerr's experience as a first-time home buyer navigating one of the most expensive housing markets in recent U.S. history highlights how - in spite of the odds stacked against them in the form of high prices and high mortgage rates - some people are still achieving the American dream of buying a home.

Home prices are the highest on record, so most would-be first-timers are sitting on the sidelines and waiting for an opportunity. Last year, the share of buyers who were first-timers fell to a record low of 24%, according to the National Association of Realtors. Back in 1995, 42% of home buyers were first-timers.

But the American dream of homeownership is still alive and well among the lucky few who are able to buy - and, importantly, secure terms they are happy with - due to historic levels of housing unaffordability driving down buyer competition in many local markets and an abundance of listings ripe for the taking.

The first-time buyer who can enter today's market is different from what NAR has tracked in past decades, Jessica Lautz, the trade group's deputy chief economist, told MarketWatch. Successful first-time buyers are now older, with a median age of 38, she said - 10 years older than in the 1980s.

Older buyers have more time to save for a down payment and pay off student loans, and also earn higher salaries than their younger counterparts - a crucial factor for buying in today's market, she added.

"Recent successful first-time buyers are also more likely to use financial assets such as stocks and retirement savings for a down payment, which indicates this is a wealthier buyer," Lautz said.

But younger buyers in their 20s are also entering the market, MarketWatch found, thanks to a combination of affordable options in their local market and diligent budgeting.

In short, first-time buyers who are achieving the American dream are in a privileged position. "First-time buyers today are elite," Lautz said.

Some of these "elite" buyers are also jumping in at a time when their local market has flipped - and the difference is day and night.

"Now I have time to make a list of homes to see [a few days later], rather than to jump on whatever house popped up on the market," said Reid, the Coldwell Banker Caine agent.

Her buyer, Kerr, not only had appraisals and inspections done, but she even had time to bring her parents with her to open houses. Kerr took her time until she saw the 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom home that would eventually become hers. She closed on the house in March for $305,000, with a 10% down payment and a 30-year mortgage rate of 6.45%. The seller also offered money to cover part of the closing costs and homeowners-insurance premiums, and replaced the roof and fixed up a crawl space as part of the purchase deal.

MarketWatch spoke to three recent first-time buyers, including Kerr, about their experiences buying in one of the most expensive housing markets in American history. Here's what they said.

Emma Kerr, 25, South Carolina

Kerr, who works in marketing in the construction industry, made about $63,000 a year at the time of the purchase.

Why she was buying: Kerr wanted to own property instead of paying rising rental costs. She also wanted to buy a house before she and her fiancé, Blake Rainwater, began their new life together.

Emma Kerr and her fiance, Blake Rainwater.

What she wanted: A three-bedroom home with a big yard for her dog.

What she paid: $305,000.

The process: She wanted to keep her monthly costs below $2,000 and had a budget of $300,000. Her agent, Reid, also coached her through factoring in property taxes and homeowners insurance into her monthly costs, so she could get a full picture of what she would pay for the house. Kerr and Reid saw multiple homes and Kerr quickly adjusted her expectations.

"If you're not flexible, you might as well stop looking," Kerr said, since each house had some issue or another. Many homes they saw appeared better in photos than in real life. "I really had to humble myself," Kerr said, as she tried to picture herself growing into those homes.

What she ended up buying: A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a big yard.

How she financed it: Kerr secured a conventional 30-year mortgage with a 10% down payment. Her mortgage rate was 6.45%.

How she saved for the house: When Kerr graduated high school and turned 18, her grandparents gifted her money. She put that money into a Fidelity investment account, where it grew over the years. "I didn't touch it at all ... and it grew into [the down-payment amount of] 10%, essentially," she said.

Haile and Hunter Mayes, both 23, Arizona

Haile Mayes, a nurse, and Hunter Mayes, a service advisor at a company that sells recreational vehicles, together earn about $155,000 a year.

Why they were buying: Having rented for multiple years, the couple wanted to own property. They also wanted to start a family together.

What they wanted: A three-bedroom home, with two bathrooms and no homeowners association, in the city of Mesa, Ariz., a large suburb of Phoenix.

What they paid: $435,000, which was lower than the home's list price of $450,000.

The process: The Mayeses had a budget of $500,000. They really did not want to be part of an HOA, having been scarred by a previous negative experience. At one rental where the couple lived, their community's HOA took issue with where she parked her car, Haile said - even though it was in front of her own home. She also wanted the freedom to plant a tree in her yard without having to seek permission from the HOA.

The couple also wanted to keep their monthly payment roughly equivalent to how much they paid in rent - something that would be easier to do without HOA fees. They made two offers that fell through; they were outbid on the first offer, and withdrew the second after issues popped up on the inspection report. They were at the airport for a flight to Hawaii to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary when they got a phone notification for what looked to be their dream home. They put in an offer immediately through their real-estate agent, negotiated on the price and got the home.

What they ended up buying: A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a nice big yard, a walk-in closet and no HOA. They closed on the house in May.

How they financed it: A 30-year mortgage with a 3.5% down payment, which was lower than the typical 9% other first-time buyers typically put down. While the Mayeses could not say for sure what type of loan they received, mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration typically allow such a low down-payment amount.

Their 30-year mortgage rate was 6.2%. They were also able to get about 3% of the home's sale price in concessions that went toward closing costs and other expenses, Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin $(RKT)$ agent who helped the couple, told MarketWatch.

"We got everything we wanted," Haile said. They hope to refinance the mortgage if rates go down enough.

How they saved for the house: "My husband and I have been together since we were in high school," Haile said. "We had always made it a priority that we would budget together." They have budget dates each month to plan their finances. One of their other financial goals was to pay off their student loans as soon as possible.

"We always were setting aside money anyway," she added, with the goal of buying a home. They even lived with their friends as roommates after getting engaged, "which everyone gave us a little bit of a hard time over," Haile said - but that arrangement allowed for them to save money to reach their home-buying goal.

Anna and Ryan Johnson, 28 and 30, Massachusetts

Anna Johnson works in public relations and her husband, Ryan, works in software engineering. The couple declined to share their annual household income.

Why they were buying: The Johnsons, who were moving from New Hampshire, wanted to live in the greater Boston area. They started looking in late January.

MW Who can actually buy a house today? Meet the 'elite' buyers achieving the American dream.

By Aarthi Swaminathan

High home prices and interest rates didn't deter these three sets of first-time home buyers

The share of first-time home buyers who bought a home in 2024 fell to a historic low, according to the National Association of Realtors.

When it came to purchasing her first house, the home-buying process was the easy bit for Emma Kerr. The hard part was deciding what to buy.

Kerr, 25, began her house hunt at the start of 2024 for two reasons: She wanted to stop paying ever-rising rents, and she wanted to find a home for her and her fiancé, to whom she had recently gotten engaged. Her plan was to buy a house for about $300,000 or less in Greenville, S.C.

Even though mortgage rates and home prices were both high, she was determined to achieve her goal.

"I wanted to invest in a property and myself," Kerr told MarketWatch.

But when they hit the road to look at houses in person, Kerr's real-estate agent, Coldwell Banker Caine's Angela Reid, was surprised by how buyer-friendly the local market had become, with more for-sale listings and waning competition. It was a stark contrast to three years ago, Reid said, when buying a house was a mad dash.

"If a buyer didn't jump on a house immediately, they were definitely going to lose out," Reid recalled. Buyers would skip getting an appraisal of the home's value, waive the traditional home inspection before making an offer, compete against multiple offers from other buyers, and even accept homes that needed repairs as is. Back then, Reid felt uncomfortable about her first-timers being put in such situations, and worried that they may not have realized the full consequences of their actions.

Kerr, in comparison, was able to take her time. After spending months looking at homes, she finally found a perfect place that was almost within her budget. She decided to pull the trigger, and even got it below the list price.

Kerr's experience as a first-time home buyer navigating one of the most expensive housing markets in recent U.S. history highlights how - in spite of the odds stacked against them in the form of high prices and high mortgage rates - some people are still achieving the American dream of buying a home.

Home prices are the highest on record, so most would-be first-timers are sitting on the sidelines and waiting for an opportunity. Last year, the share of buyers who were first-timers fell to a record low of 24%, according to the National Association of Realtors. Back in 1995, 42% of home buyers were first-timers.

But the American dream of homeownership is still alive and well among the lucky few who are able to buy - and, importantly, secure terms they are happy with - due to historic levels of housing unaffordability driving down buyer competition in many local markets and an abundance of listings ripe for the taking.

The first-time buyer who can enter today's market is different from what NAR has tracked in past decades, Jessica Lautz, the trade group's deputy chief economist, told MarketWatch. Successful first-time buyers are now older, with a median age of 38, she said - 10 years older than in the 1980s.

Older buyers have more time to save for a down payment and pay off student loans, and also earn higher salaries than their younger counterparts - a crucial factor for buying in today's market, she added.

"Recent successful first-time buyers are also more likely to use financial assets such as stocks and retirement savings for a down payment, which indicates this is a wealthier buyer," Lautz said.

But younger buyers in their 20s are also entering the market, MarketWatch found, thanks to a combination of affordable options in their local market and diligent budgeting.

In short, first-time buyers who are achieving the American dream are in a privileged position. "First-time buyers today are elite," Lautz said.

Some of these "elite" buyers are also jumping in at a time when their local market has flipped - and the difference is day and night.

"Now I have time to make a list of homes to see [a few days later], rather than to jump on whatever house popped up on the market," said Reid, the Coldwell Banker Caine agent.

Her buyer, Kerr, not only had appraisals and inspections done, but she even had time to bring her parents with her to open houses. Kerr took her time until she saw the 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom home that would eventually become hers. She closed on the house in March for $305,000, with a 10% down payment and a 30-year mortgage rate of 6.45%. The seller also offered money to cover part of the closing costs and homeowners-insurance premiums, and replaced the roof and fixed up a crawl space as part of the purchase deal.

MarketWatch spoke to three recent first-time buyers, including Kerr, about their experiences buying in one of the most expensive housing markets in American history. Here's what they said.

Emma Kerr, 25, South Carolina

Kerr, who works in marketing in the construction industry, made about $63,000 a year at the time of the purchase.

Why she was buying: Kerr wanted to own property instead of paying rising rental costs. She also wanted to buy a house before she and her fiancé, Blake Rainwater, began their new life together.

Emma Kerr and her fiance, Blake Rainwater.

What she wanted: A three-bedroom home with a big yard for her dog.

What she paid: $305,000.

The process: She wanted to keep her monthly costs below $2,000 and had a budget of $300,000. Her agent, Reid, also coached her through factoring in property taxes and homeowners insurance into her monthly costs, so she could get a full picture of what she would pay for the house. Kerr and Reid saw multiple homes and Kerr quickly adjusted her expectations.

"If you're not flexible, you might as well stop looking," Kerr said, since each house had some issue or another. Many homes they saw appeared better in photos than in real life. "I really had to humble myself," Kerr said, as she tried to picture herself growing into those homes.

What she ended up buying: A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a big yard.

How she financed it: Kerr secured a conventional 30-year mortgage with a 10% down payment. Her mortgage rate was 6.45%.

How she saved for the house: When Kerr graduated high school and turned 18, her grandparents gifted her money. She put that money into a Fidelity investment account, where it grew over the years. "I didn't touch it at all ... and it grew into [the down-payment amount of] 10%, essentially," she said.

Haile and Hunter Mayes, both 23, Arizona

Haile Mayes, a nurse, and Hunter Mayes, a service advisor at a company that sells recreational vehicles, together earn about $155,000 a year.

Why they were buying: Having rented for multiple years, the couple wanted to own property. They also wanted to start a family together.

What they wanted: A three-bedroom home, with two bathrooms and no homeowners association, in the city of Mesa, Ariz., a large suburb of Phoenix.

What they paid: $435,000, which was lower than the home's list price of $450,000.

The process: The Mayeses had a budget of $500,000. They really did not want to be part of an HOA, having been scarred by a previous negative experience. At one rental where the couple lived, their community's HOA took issue with where she parked her car, Haile said - even though it was in front of her own home. She also wanted the freedom to plant a tree in her yard without having to seek permission from the HOA.

The couple also wanted to keep their monthly payment roughly equivalent to how much they paid in rent - something that would be easier to do without HOA fees. They made two offers that fell through; they were outbid on the first offer, and withdrew the second after issues popped up on the inspection report. They were at the airport for a flight to Hawaii to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary when they got a phone notification for what looked to be their dream home. They put in an offer immediately through their real-estate agent, negotiated on the price and got the home.

What they ended up buying: A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a nice big yard, a walk-in closet and no HOA. They closed on the house in May.

How they financed it: A 30-year mortgage with a 3.5% down payment, which was lower than the typical 9% other first-time buyers typically put down. While the Mayeses could not say for sure what type of loan they received, mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration typically allow such a low down-payment amount.

Their 30-year mortgage rate was 6.2%. They were also able to get about 3% of the home's sale price in concessions that went toward closing costs and other expenses, Heather Mahmood-Corley, a Redfin (RKT) agent who helped the couple, told MarketWatch.

"We got everything we wanted," Haile said. They hope to refinance the mortgage if rates go down enough.

How they saved for the house: "My husband and I have been together since we were in high school," Haile said. "We had always made it a priority that we would budget together." They have budget dates each month to plan their finances. One of their other financial goals was to pay off their student loans as soon as possible.

"We always were setting aside money anyway," she added, with the goal of buying a home. They even lived with their friends as roommates after getting engaged, "which everyone gave us a little bit of a hard time over," Haile said - but that arrangement allowed for them to save money to reach their home-buying goal.

Anna and Ryan Johnson, 28 and 30, Massachusetts

Anna Johnson works in public relations and her husband, Ryan, works in software engineering. The couple declined to share their annual household income.

Why they were buying: The Johnsons, who were moving from New Hampshire, wanted to live in the greater Boston area. They started looking in late January.

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August 23, 2025 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

MW Who can actually buy a house today? Meet the -2-

Anna and Ryan Johnson bought a home in Massachusetts.

What they wanted: A single-family home or townhome with three bedrooms and at least one-and-a-half bathrooms.

What they paid: The couple declined to share the exact amount, but said they ended up paying $6,000 over the list price. In Massachusetts's Middlesex County, where they moved, the median home value was $822,000 as of July 31, according to the real-estate platform Zillow (Z).

The process: They toured 15 homes in person and put in four offers. Other buyers outbid them on the first two, and the third was sold to another buyer even though the Johnsons' bid was higher. The Boston market was still very competitive this spring, Anna said, adding that she was surprised by the rapid pace at which homes were selling. Their fourth offer on a house was accepted.

What they ended up buying: A condo in Middlesex County, Mass., with two bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms and a finished attic. It is part of a homeowners association. They closed on the house in late June.

How they financed it: The Johnsons got a 30-year mortgage with a rate of 6.75%, and put 20% down. Ryan talked to multiple lenders to get the lowest rate quote.

How they saved for the house: "Investing has been a topic Ryan and I talked a lot about since we started dating," Anna said. Both of them had identified early on that buying a house was a priority for them. Renting a "very affordable" apartment in New Hampshire, and not having to pay sales or income taxes on wages while living in the state, also helped them save for the down payment, she told MarketWatch.

If you're just starting out on your money or career journey and have questions about how to navigate your finances, we want to hear from you. Write to Dollar Signs, MarketWatch's new advice column, at dollarsigns@marketwatch.com.

-Aarthi Swaminathan

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August 23, 2025 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)

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