First Time Buyers Drop But Still Significant



Courtesy of NAR

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has an Economists’ Outlook Blog.  Yesterday, it posted an article that claims 32% of all September sales were by first time buyers.  For some time, that figure has trended closer to 40%, and was at a 50% level in 2009.

The number of cash sales in this buyer group was up, too, from 8.7% in August to 11.4% in September.

First time buyers have it tough.  Mortgage financing is harder to obtain, government loan (FHA and USDA Rural Development Program) underwriting is more tedious, distressed home sales take longer to complete, and investors have often picked over the lower priced listings already. That being said, they are still a significant part of the buyer pool.

This information comes from the monthly NAR Realtors® Confidence Index survey for September 2012.

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