The New Geography of Housing in America

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Subscribe to Derek’s new Substack. In 1991, the median age of first-time homebuyers was 28. Now it’s 38, an all-time high. In 1981, the median age of all homebuyers was 36. Today, it’s 56—another all-time high. This is the hardest time for young people (defined, generously, up to 40!) to buy their first home in modern history. Derek talks about the history of how we got here and then brings on Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen to talk about the state of American housing today and how the national housing market has broken into “two Americas.” If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Conor Sen Producer: Devon Baroldi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:51.6	Today, housing.
0:55.0	Sometimes a single statistic can tell you quite a lot.
0:59.4	In 1991, the median age of first-time homebuyers was 28 years old.
1:05.3	Now it's 38, according to the National Association of Realtors.
1:09.6	That's an all-time high.
1:14.0	In 1981, the median age of all home buyers was 36. Today, it's 56, another all-time high. This is not just a story of Americans generally
1:22.7	getting older. This is a story of the housing market, generally getting more unaffordable for young Americans.
1:30.3	Indeed, for most Americans, you could say one's 30s had historically been a decade of owning a home, starting a family.
1:37.3	But now it's more common that one's 30s are instead the decade of trying and failing and trying and failing again to buy a home. By this measure, at least,
1:45.7	this is the hardest time for young people, here defined generously as anybody under 40, to buy their
1:52.3	first house, condo, or apartment. In a recent essay on Substack, I explained how I see the story
	...

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