The recently released National Association of Realtor’s “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” reveals that the median age of a buyer is 39 (30 for first time buyers and 48 for repeat buyers). The median age of a seller is 48.  The median age of a Portlander is 37 and according to RMLS Market Action for October, “A family earning the median income ($70,000 in 2009, per HUD) can afford 140% of a monthly mortgage payment on a median priced home ($241,400 in September). The formula assumes that the buyer has a 20% down payment and a loan at a 30-year fixed-rate of 5.06% (average per Freddie Mac in September).

The things that make you go hmmm. The median first time buyer could be the child of the median seller. Even the nine year gap between the median seller and buyer is hard to ignore. According to Pew Research, the age breakdown of generations is (NAR info enclosed in []):

Gen Y: 18-32 [median first time buyer]
Gen X: 33-45 [median buyer]
Baby Boomers 45-54 [median repeat buyer and seller (median Realtor is 54)]

Seller and Realtors need to ask the question as to whether listed home (both physically and in the way it is marketed) speaks the same language as the possible buyer? Needless to say, we can’t aim just to be average; buyers don’t select homes based on this is one is average so it will do.