First-time home buyers rent longer, earn more and celebrate more birthdays before they purchase than their counterparts from nearly four decades earlier.
Back in the early seventies, first-time home buyers only rented for an average of 2.6 years before they purchased a residence.
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But that time between first renting and buying a home has lengthened significantly, with the average at six years for the period 2010 to 2013.
That was among some of the findings outlined in a report this week from Zillow.
Based on 2011 dollars, the median income for home owners was $54,340 during the most-recent period, more than the $52,532 median in the 1970-to-1974 era.
Zillow said that the price-to-income ratio has climbed to 2.6 as of the 2010-to-2013 period from 1.7 in the early seventies.
The average number of family members per household thinned from three in the period that started in 1970 and ended in 1974 to two during each of the past three periods.
First-time buyers have grown older, with the median age rising to 32.5 from 30.6 in the early seventies.
Also, homeowners are less likely to be married than in the past, with just 40 percent of married nowadays
versus 52 percent nearly three decades earlier.
“Millennials are delaying all kinds of major life decisions, like getting married and having kids, so it makes sense that they would also delay buying a home,” Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell said in a written statement. “We know millennials value home-ownership and want to buy.”
