2014 Mass. Profile of Buyers & Sellers Executive Summary
WALTHAM, Mass. – January 22, 2015 – The lack of homes for sale and increasing prices have put the squeeze on first-time home buyers according to a recent Massachusetts housing study. The study found that first-time home buyers made up 39 percent of the total home buying population, which is the lowest level in the past 12 years. These buyers are decreasing despite the fact that the median income of both first-time and repeat buyers is significantly higher than the national average.
The data is from the 2014 Massachusetts Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers, compiled by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® (MAR).
“While the market in Massachusetts has been steadily improving, the lack of homes for sale, and the resulting upward pressure on prices has pushed a lot of first-time buyers to the sidelines,” said 2015 MAR President Corinne Fitzgerald, broker-owner of FITZGERALD Real Estate in Greenfield. “The solution to this problem is for sellers to embrace this opportunity of low inventory and make the move they’ve been waiting for with the confidence that it is a good time to put their home on the market. Also the added production of work-force housing will give those first-time homebuyers who want to buy the confidence and security they need to do so.”
A general lack of homes for sale in 2014 and 2013 resulted in the lowest percent of first-time home buyers in Massachusetts since the study was first conducted for MAR in 2003. The 39 percent level of first-time homebuyers is down from a median of 44.5 percent. Despite the decrease, both Massachusetts and the Northeast fared better than the national average of 33 percent in 2014.
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