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Sales of existing homes fell last month, according to data out today from the National Association of Realtors®. They're down 4% from September, and almost 15% from a year earlier. Prices, meanwhile, keep climbing. Nationally the median home price is now almost $392,000 dollars. Is it any wonder then that it's taking people longer to buy a home? The median age of first-time homebuyers is now 35 — up from 29 in 1981. And the median age of all homebuyers is now 49, up from 31 in 1981. And there are a bunch of reasons it's taking people longer to buy homes now than it used to. Brandi Snowden, director of member and consumer survey research at the National Association of Realtors®, said to get into the market now, you need to make a lot more money than you did even just a couple of years ago. "Just between 2021 and 2022, for first time homebuyers, household incomes rose nearly $25,000, just from that previous year," she said. The median household income for first-time homebuyers is now nearly $96,000 dollars. That's well over the national median income, which is about $75,000 dollars.