NEW YORK — The vision underpinning the American dream — of fresh-faced young people buying a first home with a white-picket fence — hasn’t held up well.
It turns out that the median age of the U.S. homebuyer is now 47, compared with 31 in 1981, Deutsche Bank chief economist Torsten Slok wrote in a note.
“This is driven by an aging population, affordability, higher student debt levels, and tighter mortgage lending standards for young people and individuals with lower credit scores,” Slok said. Those forces have contributed to lower levels of residential mobility, he added.
