Real estate agents should expect to work the most with older and experienced homebuyers, per the latest data from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR).
NAR’s 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report found that baby boomers have overtaken millennials, reclaiming the top spot as the largest share of homebuyers, outpacing younger generations.
Millennials, who as the report notes are the largest population segment in the U.S., made up 29% of homebuyers in 2024—compared to 38% in 2023, when they were the largest share of buyers. Baby boomers, conversely, rose from 31% of homebuyers to 42% year-over-year.
Gen X stayed consistent, making up 24% of homebuyers. Gen Z makes up only 3% of all homebuyers, but they have the highest share of single female homebuyers (30%).
(The report defines Gen Z as those born between 1999-2011, millennials as those born between 1980-1998, Gen X as those born between 1965-1979 and boomers as those born between 1946-1964.)
In an interview with RISMedia, Jessica Lautz—deputy chief economist and vice president of research at NAR—says “we’re seeing that consistently in the data, younger millennials and Gen Zers are not entering the market at the levels that we would see for past generations of the same age.”
Lautz says to let go of expectations that young adults will displace boomers as the primary homebuyers anytime soon, because “we’re really seeing that baby boomers are quite active in the housing market and don’t have any intention of leaving that property.”
While younger, first-time millennial homebuyers aren’t a complete non-entity, Lutz says,
“Right now it is more likely that (agents) could be working with someone who is entering retirement or actively in retirement who’s looking to relocate to be close to the grandkids versus someone who’s looking to purchase their first home and thinking about school districts.”
Bright MLS has forecasted a “tale of two housing markets,” with a strong divide between wealthy homebuyers and those priced out of the market. Highest wealth does not completely correlate to prolific home-buying, per this report. Generation X was found to have the highest median household income ($130,000), followed by older millennials ($127,500), but both groups bought less than boomers.
However, when asked about this market bifurcation, Lautz says it is reflected by the data found in NAR’s report. More than 90% of buyers under 44 financed their home purchase, while older buyers showed a slight preference for cash offers.
“We can see that 51% of older boomers are paying cash for their home. We can see that 39% of younger boomers are also paying cash for their recent purchase,” Lautz says. Asked in turn if this could hurt the ability of younger homebuyers to enter the market, Lautz says this is a possibility, especially due to low inventory.
“If there is a multiple bid or multiple offer situation, that could mean it’s a harder road for young adults who are trying to enter into homeownership if they’re competing against someone who can place down an all-cash offer,” Lautz says.
Age and home-buying market power also extend to divides within generations. Older millennials are reaching middle age, Lautz notes, and most of them are now repeat buyers—while 71% of younger millennials are first-time homebuyers, the report found. “So even though we’re seeing a smaller share of young buyers in the market, it’s really driven by this drop in for second-home buyers,” says Lautz.
First-time home-buying in general dropped off year-over-year. First-time buyers went from 32% of buyers in 2023 to 24% in 2024, a “significant drop” according to NAR’s press release that accompanied the report.
Other trends that held consistent from 2023, Lautz says, include the silent generation (which in 2024 was home to only 4% of all buyers) having the highest share of veteran homebuyers, and Generation X having the highest number of multi-generation homebuyers.
Gen X homebuyers are buying “to accommodate aging relatives, children over the age of 18 and even for cost savings,” said Lautz in NAR’s aforementioned press release.
Buyer/seller behavior and agent expectations across generations
The data suggests that real estate agents need not be concerned by the shifting ages of homebuyers, or wealthier older buyers moving to pay all in cash.
Eighty-eight percent of all homebuyers used an agent during their transaction in 2024, the report found. The age bracket that was least likely to use an agent was buyers aged 60-69, or younger boomers, yet 86% of buyers in that age group still used an agent. The age groups most likely to use an agent when buying a home were the younger millennials (90%) and the silent generation (91%).
Only 6% of sellers reportedly listed as a For Sale by Owner (FSBO), while 2% sold through a home-buying company. A negligible amount of sellers sold through an iBuying program.
Discussing how all-cash buyers might behave differently, Lautz says they might be “less likely to make financial sacrifices or compromises on what they’re looking at for a home because they have the wealth to be able to buy what they want.”
Similarly, the vast majority (86%) of sellers continue to list on MLSs. Sellers aged 26-34 were the least likely to list on the MLS, but 83% of them still did so. Most homes (56%) sold for between 95%-100% of the listing price—only 7% sold for less than 90% of listing price, and another 7% sold for 110% over the listing price.
The highest plurality of homes (39%) remained on the market for one to two weeks before selling. Most sellers (76%) did not report offering incentives to attract homebuyers either.
When hiring, the reputation of agents is the most important factor across the board for sellers. Thirty-five percent of all sellers listed reputation as the most important factor, and the second ranked factor (at 21%) was an agent’s honesty and trustworthiness.
As for what sellers want out of real estate agents, the most listed factor (22% of sellers) was help marketing the home to potential buyers, followed by help pricing the home competitively (20%) and selling the home within a specific timeframe (18%).
Referrals easily remain the most popular way homebuyers find their agent—40% of all buyers found their agent through a referral, with the largest slice of that being 54% of buyers aged 26-34. Seventeen percent of all buyers found an agent by reusing one they’d previously worked with, and the third most popular way (inquiring about an online listing) came in at only 7% of all buyers.
Buyers were most likely to find a listing through the internet, with 51% of all buyers saying they did so. As buyers got older, they were less and less likely to use the internet to find a listing. While 61% of buyers aged 26-34 found their listing on the internet, only 28% of buyers aged 79-99 did so.
Among the features in online listings, 83% of all buyers said that photos were the most valuable to include, followed by detailed information about the property (79%) and floor plans (57%).
When asked about areas where they were most satisfied with their agent, 89% of all buyers said they were “very satisfied” with the agents’ knowledge of the home purchase process, their agents’ responsiveness and their honesty and integrity.
Seventy-three percent of all buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend them to others, as did 72% of sellers. For all sellers of all ages, it is a literal 50/50 split on whether they were in practice more likely to reuse a previously used agent or find a new one. Sellers aged 35-44 were the most likely to reuse an agent in 2024—61% having done so.
For the full report, click here.
