Who Is the Typical Homebuyer in 2025?

Across the U.S., homebuyers have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for lower mortgage rates. Still, some buyers remain active, with a recent report from housing marketing platform Zillow showing that 5% of adults in the U.S. are recent homebuyers. The 2025 Consumer Housing Trend Report looks at U.S. Census Bureau data to get a better sense of who is buying homes right now. Overall, it shows that most buyers this year were older established adults with higher than typical incomes.

Buyers are getting older

A majority of those who can afford to buy homes are older Millennials who have been saving over the last few years or who have established some equity and are onto their second or third home purchase. In 2025, the median age of the U.S. homebuyer is 42, while the average age sits at 44. About one in five buyers, or about 21%, are in their twenties or younger, and about 20% are in their 60s or older.

Most buyers have high incomes

As home prices rise, the income needed to purchase a home has also increased. Because of this trend, buyers tend to have higher household incomes than the U.S. population overall. The annual median household income among homebuyers is $97,600, compared with the overall national median of $74,600.

Where do most buyers live?

Even though most buyers tend to earn higher wages, a majority are choosing to buy in more affordable regions of the U.S. The largest share of buyers, or 43%, live in the South, with the Midwest following behind at 23% of buyers. Homebuyers in the West account for just 23% of the marketshare, and just 13% of buyers are located in the Northeast.

Even though most buyers have high incomes, they still report a stressful homebuying experience

Regardless of their financial mobility, most buyers, or about 60%, report having a stressful experience purchasing their home. Additionally, 25% of buyers say it was very or extremely stressful.

For first-time buyers, the process was even more likely to be stress-inducing, with 31% saying the process was very or extremely stressful. Comparatively, just 19% of repeat buyers found it to be very or extremely stressful.