A wave of 50-year-olds are buying their first homes — in cash — after a 'significant' wait for their parents to die

But one segment of first-time buyers hit a record high: those paying all cash. The share of all-cash first-time buyers rose to 10% for 2026.

And the median age of this group has been climbing; from 2019 to 2022, it was steady at age 47, rising to 52 in 2023 and 2024. For 2025, the median age of cash buyers was 53, and for 2026 it hit 54 years old.

By comparison, the median age for first-time buyers who used financing in 2026 was 38.

So, what’s behind this trend of first-time, all-cash buyers in their 50s?

‘Inheritances are really driving this’

It’s worth noting that the median age of first-time buyers has been steadily rising as well. Last year, the median age of first-time buyers hit a record high of age 40, which held steady for 2026.

The report says that “the age of first-time buyers has been incrementally climbing from 30” since 2010. Why?

“First-time home buyers are likely older because they have to save longer and are entering a market with limited inventory, which may require longer searches to find a home,” the report says.

As for the all-cash segment, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, Jessica Lautz, told NPR that “Inheritances are really driving this.”

Regarding the higher median age of first-time, all cash buyers, Lautz told NPR, “They waited a significant period of time for that generational transfer of wealth to come through.”

The report found that “First-time buyers who paid all-cash were more likely than those who financed a house to use an inheritance (28%) or proceeds from the sale of an inherited property (21%),” according to NPR.

It seems that many of these first-time cash buyers are part of the “Great Wealth Transfer” — the transfer of assets from baby boomers and older generations to their heirs, which will see trillions of dollars inherited by younger generations. One often-cited figure estimates the total assets transferred to heirs from 2024 to 2048 will be $105 trillion.

Jason Miller, a broker with Trust Real Estate Company in St. Cloud, Minn., said he’s seen the change in motion.

“I would say in the first 15 years of my career, I saw virtually zero first-time home buyers paying all cash,” Miller told NPR.

‘A growing divide’

The National Association of Realtors’ report noted that “there is a growing divide among those who are saving independently and priced out of homeownership, versus those who are waiting on the sidelines but then given a generational transfer of wealth,” NPR reported.

Miller told NPR that he also sees more clients who are getting help from their families, with gifts from living family members, as a kind of “future inheritance.”

Nate Johnson, a broker associate with RedKey Realty Leaders in St. Louis, told NPR that some younger buyers are borrowing cash from family, as a way to make their bids more attractive in a competitive market, and then turning around and getting a mortgage.

“They just know that if we’re looking at five or six offers on the table, let’s call it 10 offers on the table, which is not uncommon ... maybe three of those offers will be all cash,” he told NPR.

Those buyers will end up refinancing with a mortgage after they get the property, and pay back their family, he said.