Even as fresh data points to the US housing market turning in buyers' favor, first-time buyers are still struggling to break in.
Torsten Slok, the chief economist of Apollo Global Management, recently highlighted just how tough it is for people looking to get into the housing market, with the share of first-time buyers plummeting in the last 15 years.
"In 2010, 50% of all homes sold were purchased by first-time home buyers. Today, the share is 24%."
The data is a stark reminder that buyers and sellers are at a stalemate midway through 2025. Even as housing inventory piles up across the country, prices aren't budging and rates remain restrictive. Redfin reported recently that there was a record $700 billion in unsold housing stock in the US in April, a month when prices rose 17%.
Meanwhile, new home sales plunged by almost 14% in May, another datapoint showing the deep freeze that the US housing market has fallen into.
In its US Housing Outlook, published May 2025, Apollo said that 44% of consumers believe that "this is a bad time to buy a house because of high mortgage rates and tight credit." It also noted that 34% of Americans have said that if they were to move, they would rent.
Part of the problem is the so-called lock-in effect. Current homeowners are hesitant to sell as they cling to the low rates they locked in during the era of low rates during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, economic uncertainty is still high as the US economy navigates tariffs and the outlook for interest rates remains clouded, adding to difficulties for buyers trying to enter the housing market.
