What is The Best Age To Buy a House At?

Buying a house is a huge part of the American Dream. Unfortunately, there's usually little

advice as to when you should actually make a purchase. While many might tell you that

renting is just throwing money away, it's never a good idea to make a major investment

before you are ready to do so. If you want to make a smart home purchase, it's a good

idea to have a little information in front of you. One thing you might want to know is when

you'll be at the best age to buy a home.

What's the Average

If you're going to look for an answer to this question, it's probably best to start with

simple statistics. At the moment, the average age of a first-time home buyer is thirty-two,

which may be significantly older than some assume. While there are many factors

involved with determining the average age of a buyer, perhaps more important is the

fact that the average home-buyer also has an income of around seventy-two thousand

dollars per year. Regardless of age, it seems that home-buyers need to be in a position

at which they can make a fair deal of money before they consider buying a home.

The Bare Minimum

While there is no maximum age for buying a home, there is a minimum that holds true

across the United States. You have to be at least eighteen years old in the United States

to sign a binding real estate contract, so those under that threshold are out of luck when

it comes to buying a home. Those who own a home at the age of eighteen are in a distinct

minority, though, and it's rarely recommended that anyone that is barely out of high school

seek to buy a home.

Building Up Credit

If you're going to go beyond looking at raw numbers, it's important to look at the factors

that might give you a better answer as to when you should buy a home. The big one is

credit - the better your credit, the better your odds of being approved for a loan. It usually

takes time to build up great credit, even if you have a good job. Most teens, for example,

rarely have much of a credit score at all - and even those who have been working for years

rarely have the kind of history that is needed to purchase a home. As such, it's typically

better to wait until one is more established than to try to buy early. Remember, your credit

score will impact many aspects of the home buying process - including getting home

insurance quotes - so it's always wisest to wait until it is strong.

Lifestyle Issues

Finding the right age is also a matter of making sure you are stable enough to make a long-

term commitment. You'll need to feel comfortable that you'll be in the same spot for several

years in order to make a home purchase make sense. This is rarely something that works

for someone in their early twenties, for example, but becomes far more likely for an

individual in his or her late twenties or early thirties. As such, it seems more likely that it's

a good idea to buy a home a bit later rather than to do so too early.

What's the best age to buy a house at? It generally depends on your financial readiness,

security, and your credit score. Waiting until your late twenties or early thirties is generally

a good idea, but those numbers won't work for everyone. Depending on your field of

employment and the part of the country in which you live, it's possible for those numbers to

be adjusted by as much as a decade either way. Regardless, the best time to buy a house

is when you're financially and socially ready to do so - and that can be at any age.