A Different Type of Buyer Emerges

The profile of home buyers are changing according to data from the newly released 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Here’s a few of the changes observed across Ohio and the United States:

• More buyers are skipping the mortgage. With the sizable housing equity gains many owners have experienced, all-cash buyers have surged to record highs, accounting for 26% of home sales over the past year. Thirty-one percent of repeat buyers paid all-cash for their next home purchase. 

• First-time buyers are getting older. The median age of a first-time home buyer was 38, an all-time high. Twenty-five percent of first-time buyers used a gift or loan from a relative or friend for their home purchase; 20% took money out of financial assets like stocks, 401ks or cryptocurrency to afford homeownership; and 7% used inheritance money for their purchase—a record high. First-time buyers are coming up with the highest down payments in nearly 30 years—at 9%—in order to afford the higher home prices. 

• The allure of cities (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati) grows. The pandemic may have unleashed a trend of suburban movers, but people are now heading back to city centers—the largest uptick in a decade.

• More buyers are pooling their money. The number of multigenerational households surged to an all-time high of 17% over the past year. The number one reason is for cost savings. Buyers are combining incomes in order to afford homeownership. They’re also buying a multigenerational home to take care of aging parents or because of young adults are moving back home.

• Single women buyers continue to outpace single men buyers. A drop in marriage rates has triggered more consumers to enter the housing market on their own. Single women held a 24% share of the home-purchase market over the past year. For single men, it was 11%.

Home Price Forecast

• 2025 median home price: $410,700; up 2% over 2024.

• 2026 median home price: $420,000, up 2% over 2025.

The Bottom Line

As always, real estate is always changing and always interesting. In Greater Cleveland, there has been an uptick in days on market for listings. What this means is homes are taking longer to sell than they have in previous months. From my experience, this is in line with typical fall/winter seasonality, which was the norm before Covid upended the real estate the last few years. Homes are still selling, but buyers have a little more leverage than they did in the late summer market. The buyer advantage is less on move-in ready listings in desirable neighborhoods.

With the new NAR rules, what I'm seeing is confusion from buyers and sellers alike to what the new guidelines are and how it effects them. Unfortunately, I have seen buyers lose out on homes and even miss out on showings by not connecting with a real estate agent that the seller has offered to pay for for them. This is simply a lack of education. I've also seen sellers lose money because they are scaring buyers and their agents away by refusing to build the costs of a transaction into the listing.

Frustrating on both fronts. My advice is to hire an agent who understands how this works. There are some agents who still don't and it's damaging consumers.

If you have any questions at all about how these changes effect you, or anything else, please don't hesitate in reaching out.

-Pat