CHICAGO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The share of first-time home buyers in the United States continued to fall amid inventory shortage in affordable small homes, a survey showed on Monday.
U.S. National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report titled 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, showing that first-time home buyers continued a three-year decline in the share, falling to 33 percent from 34 percent last year.
This number has not been 40 percent or higher since the first-time home buyers tax credit ended in 2010.
"With the lower end of the housing market -- smaller, moderately priced homes -- seeing the worst of the inventory shortage, first-time home buyers who want to enter the market are having difficulty finding a home they can afford," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.
He added that rising interest rates and student loan debt also contributed to the suppression of first-time home buyers.
Meanwhile, the survey has found that single female buyers continued to be a strong force in the market.
For the second year in a row, single women accounted for 18 percent of all buyers, the second most common household buyer type behind married couples, which stood at 63 percent.
Single male buyers came in third, 9 percent, which accounted for half the number of buyers as their female counterparts.
However, single males tended to purchase more expensive homes, with a median price of 215,000 U.S. dollars, compared to single females with a median price of 189,000 dollars, the lowest of all household buyer types.
Twenty percent of U.S. home buyers purchased a multigenerational home, to take care of aging parents, because of children over the age of 18 moving back home, and for cost-saving.
The survey also found that 88 percent of recent buyers financed their home purchase. Those who financed their home purchase typically financed 87 percent.
All the findings were based on a 129-question survey NAR conducted since July 2018, using a random sample weighted to be representative of sales on a geographic basis to 155,250 recent home buyers.
