The share of homes bought by first-time buyers fell to 32 percent of all purchases in 2015, as compared to the 33 percent of 2014. This will be the third annual decline and the lowest percentage of first-time buyers in three decades, according to the National Association of Realtors' annual profile of buyers and sellers.
Even with the decline of first-time homebuyers, the "desire to own" reason for buying a house rose to 64 percent of the first-time buyers surveyed, up from the 53 percent last year.
In a report by CNBC, Lawrence Yun, chief economist of Realtors, said that there are many reasons why first-time homebuyers should reach out to the market, but at the same time there are also many hurdles that are delaying them to buy a home of their own.
"There are several reasons why there should be more first-time buyers reaching the market, including persistently low mortgage rates, healthy job prospects for those college-educated, and the fact that renting is becoming more unaffordable in many areas," said Yun. "Unfortunately, there are just as many high hurdles slowing first-time buyers down. Increasing rents and home prices are impeding their ability to save for a down payment, there's scarce inventory for new and existing-homes in their price range, and it's still too difficult for some to get a mortgage."
The Wall Street Journal reported that the rise of home prices can add more burden on the part of the first-time homebuyers.
"The short answer is they can't afford it," said the Chief Economist of Redfin, Nela Richardson.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the median price of an existing home in September has increased by 6.1 percent from last year, making it $221,900, while the median price of newly-built homes rose to $296,900 in September, increasing by 13.5 percent, from $261,500 a year ago.
