First-time home buyers are flocking to the real estate market in larger numbers, comprising 46 percent of mortgages backed by Freddie Mac—excluding refinancings—that were issued in the first quarter of this year. That marks the largest quarterly share that Freddie Mac has recorded, dating back to 2012.
“This is a millennial-driven rise,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, told Bloomberg. “You’ve got a strong economy that’s helping, along with the appetite of the financial market to invest in mortgages.”
Younger buyers may be motivated to buy due to the easing of credit in recent months as well as an improving job market. They also may be motivated to buy as rents rise and as increasing home prices and mortgage costs threaten to price them out of homeownership if they don’t act soon, Bloomberg reports.
The National Association of REALTORS® reports that the median age of first-time buyers is 32 years old.
Source: “First-Time U.S. Homebuyers Account for Almost Half of Mortgages,” Bloomberg (June 4, 2018)
