First-time home buying hit a historic low, experts say. What about on Long Island?

First-time home buying across the country reached a new low in the last year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Meanwhile, local real estate professionals say that while plenty of people purchased their first homes this year on Long Island, buyers' ages have gone up, and their house-hunting journeys have taken time.

The annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has been published by the NAR for more than 40 years. The 2025 survey reveals a "historic low" (according to the report's analysis) for first-time homebuyers nationwide, accounting for just 21% of all buyers. Before 2008, the typical share of first-time buyers was 40%, the report states.

First-timers accounted for just

21% of all buyers

last year, NAR data showed. The typical share was 

40% before 2008

The lack of inventory and high demand of the market around the country has caused potential homebuyers to "get out-priced and become exhausted with bidding wars," said Lowell Ackerman, a real estate broker with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, based in Huntington.

In his experience working with his house-hunters on Long Island, "the competitive nature is the biggest factor I'm seeing with first-time homebuyers," Ackerman said. "There's a lot of frustration and a lot of letdown."

First-time buyers here can end up searching for "upwards of a year" before reaching the closing table, he said. Despite the waiting game, the "bread and butter" of his sales this year were from first-timers buying his listings.

This year, Kaitlynn McCartney, a real estate agent with Compass in Oceanside, also helped many Long Islanders in this demographic: "It's pretty consistent for me that I work with millennial first-time homebuyers," she said.

Often, these buyers are Long Island natives looking to start families, McCartney said. But she's also seen millennials get priced out of the areas where they grew up. Someone who was raised in Nassau County, for example, might end up venturing out farther east on Long Island to "purchase something more affordable there," she said.

Stacy Zigman, a real estate agent for RE/MAX City Square in East Meadow, helped several seniors sell their homes this year, with "many of the transactions" involving first-time buyers, she said.

According to the NAR survey, although the share of first-time homebuyers this year was at a low, their typical age has reached the highest recorded in the report's history.

"I definitely see on Long Island, when I do have a first-time homebuyer that's got an acceptance, they're a little bit older," Zigman said, adding that they're usually in their 30s. "This is someone who's saved some money and isn't as young as maybe in the past."

The reason for the nationwide decline in first-time homeownership this year, she said, comes back to affordability.

I think that young people today don't make enough to keep up with the home prices.

— Stacy Zigman, RE/MAX City Square agent

"I think that young people today don't make enough to keep up with the home prices," Zigman said. "That's a country-wide thing. Also on Long Island, the prices here have skyrocketed so much, especially in recent years."

It could also reflect just how much millennials' life plans have changed across the country, McCartney said: "I would say priorities are shifting; values are shifting."

"I think younger people today are waiting longer [to buy]," Zigman said. "They're not getting married as early as in the past. It's good that they want to get financially stable. They're also working on their careers, paying off education or focusing on education."

Looking ahead, homeownership for young people is still possible on Long Island, McCartney said — but getting organized early is key.

"It's tough: There's no doubt this is a very expensive place to live," she said. "But if you're diligent in your savings and come up with a real game plan early on in your 20s, and you make sacrifices and save, it's attainable."