The key to a $1.3T opportunity

A new trend in real estate is making the most expensive properties obtainable. It’s called co-ownership, and it’s revolutionizing the $1.3T vacation home market.

The company leading the trend? Pacaso. Created by the founder of Zillow, Pacaso turns underutilized luxury properties into fully-managed assets and makes them accessible to the broadest possible market.

The result? More than $1b in transactions, 2,000+ happy homeowners, and over $110m in gross profits for Pacaso.

With rapid international growth and 41% gross profit growth last year, Pacaso is ready for what’s next. They even recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

But the real opportunity is now, before public markets. Until 5/29, you can join leading investors like SoftBank and Maveron for just $2.80/share.

Invest in Pacaso today.

_{This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals. Under Regulation A+, a company has the ability to change its share price by up to 20%, without requalifying the offering with the SEC.}

👋👋 Good morning real estate watchers! Today, in our ‘Landlord of the Free, Home of the Lease Edition’ edition, we are going to talk about...

1. The average age of a first-time homebuyer is now 38—which means millennials are finally buying homes just in time for their midlife crisis. Nothing says ‘dream home’ like a fixer-upper with black mold and a reminder that your knees aren’t what they used to be.

2. Renters storm the multifamily market like a Taylor Swift ticket drop; vacancies have fallen so low they’re technically on the endangered-species list, and investors throw cash faster than a toddler with confetti.

3. The student-loan “debt-nado” is now ripping through credit scores. Millions of borrowers just discovered repayment is a thing again, pushing them out of the home-buying line and into rentals like shoppers sprinting for the last Black Friday flat-screen.

United we rent, divided we sublet—let’s go!

TOP STORY

MIDLIFE BUYERS

When 39-year-old teacher Melissa Harris finally closed on her first home this spring, a 1970s fixer-upper in upstate New York, it wasn’t champagne she popped. It was her lower back.

“I toured 21 homes and made nine offers,” Harris said. “This was the only one that didn’t come with a cash buyer attached, or asbestos.”

Welcome to the new American dream: buying your first home just in time to shop for bifocals. America is fast becoming a renter nation like Europe, but without universal healthcare, efficient public transit, or sexy accents to soften the blow.

The median age of first-time homebuyers hit a record-high 38 years in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This is the highest since the data started in 1981. That’s a full decade older than the average buyer in the 1980s, when leg warmers and low interest rates were both in vogue.

For repeat buyers, the numbers are even grayer: the average homebuyer age climbed to 56, a 44% jump from two decades ago. In short, America’s housing market has become a retirement party, and fewer millennials are on the guest list.

The Not-So-Golden Years of New Construction

This isn’t just a demographic quirk. It reflects deep cracks in the American housing foundation, figuratively and literally. The median age of homes sold in 2024 was 36 years, the oldest on record, per Redfin.

And it’s no accident. After the 2008 crash, housing construction slowed to a crawl. Only 9% of existing U.S. homes were built in the 2010s, the lowest percentage for any decade since World War II, when, to be fair, the country was busy defeating fascism.

While homebuilders have slowly ramped up, progress remains tepid. According to Census Bureau data, housing starts dropped for the third straight year in 2024 and fell 11% in March compared to February. The cause? A cocktail of high interest rates, rising material costs, and unpredictable tariffs that have builders second-guessing whether it's safe to pour a foundation, or just pour another drink.

Starter Homes, Without the Start

Affordability, once a cornerstone of homeownership, is rapidly becoming a relic. In 2012, homes over 30 years old were 19% cheaper than the median. Now, that discount has narrowed to just 15% as demand floods older, more affordable housing markets, and even those homes come with rising prices and renovation headaches.

“Most buyers I work with aren’t looking for a forever home anymore,” said one Boston-area real estate agent. “They’re looking for a first-anything, even if it needs new plumbing, a new roof, and maybe an exorcism.”

The price of new homes hasn’t helped. Many new builds are concentrated in the Sun Belt, where land is cheaper, but wages are often lower. Meanwhile, Buffalo (median home age: 69 years), Pittsburgh (68), and Cleveland (65) top the list of America’s grayest roofs.

A Nation of Renters in Waiting?

As homeownership gets older and costlier, a cultural shift is quietly underway. Young Americans, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are either delaying or abandoning homeownership by choice or necessity.

And if that sounds familiar, it’s because Europe beat us to it.

Countries like Germany, Switzerland, and Austria have long embraced the renter lifestyle, with homeownership rates hovering around 50% or lower. Compare that to the U.S., where ownership remains around 65%, but is slipping among younger cohorts.

If current trends continue, America could soon join the European ranks, not just in renting but also in policy. There are growing calls for expanded tenant protections, build-to-rent communities are booming, and institutional ownership of rental stock is rising.

As economist Nancy Wu put it, “We’re not just seeing a delay in buying, we’re seeing a cultural redefinition of what it means to ‘make it’ in America.”

The U.S. housing market is becoming a paradox: aging buyers, aging homes, and a younger generation increasingly locked out. If trends persist, we may look back on the age of starter homes and picket fences the way we look at rotary phones or Blockbuster memberships—with nostalgia and mild disbelief.

The question isn’t “When can I afford to buy a home?” but “Should I even try?” Or, in the words of one Gen Z renter in San Diego: “I’ll buy a house right after I buy my second avocado toast.”

SNIPPETS

1️⃣ Renters Gone Wild: In Q1 2025, the multifamily real estate sector showed robust performance with positive net absorption of 100,600 units - the strongest Q1 since 2000 and over triple the pre-pandemic average. Vacancy rates dropped 20 basis points to 4.8%, falling below the long-term average of 5.0%, as demand continued to outpace new construction for the fourth consecutive quarter. Investor confidence remains high, with multifamily investment volume surging 33% year-over-year to $28.8 billion and representing 33% of total commercial real estate investment. Industry experts like CBRE's Kelli Carhart predict continued strength in the sector, anticipating gains to persist through 2025 and accelerate in 2026, despite potential economic uncertainties. (ConnectCRE)

2️⃣ Commissions Remix: The average buyer’s agent commission is steady at 2.4%, with interesting variations by price point: luxury homes over $1 million are seeing slightly lower commissions at 2.17%, while more affordable homes under $500,000 are experiencing a modest increase to 2.49%. Most sellers still voluntarily cover buyer's agent commissions, though some markets are experimenting with lower rates, particularly in new construction. A recent survey indicates that while about 37% of sellers attempted to negotiate commissions, nearly half did not, suggesting the market is still adapting to new rules. (Redfin)

3️⃣ Debt Tsunami: As student loan payments resume after a 43-month pandemic pause, nearly one in four borrowers (23.7%) with payment obligations are now delinquent, with the highest rates concentrated in Southern states like Mississippi (44.6%) and Alabama (34.1%). The delinquency surge is particularly pronounced among borrowers over 40, and approximately 2.4 million newly delinquent borrowers with credit scores above 620 will likely face increased borrowing costs and reduced credit access. This credit market disruption could potentially slow home purchasing activity, impact rental demand, and create opportunities for investors in markets with high delinquency rates, as borrowers' reduced creditworthiness may push them toward rental housing. (Liberty Street)

4️⃣ Tiny Town Takeover: Smaller markets (under one million residents) have experienced significant population gains in 2021 and 2022, directly contrasting with larger urban areas that saw population declines. Notably, these smaller markets are now outperforming larger metros in apartment occupancy rates, with tertiary markets (less than 25,000 units) achieving the highest occupancy at 95.9% in March 2025, compared to their pre-pandemic average of 94.6%. This reversal of historical trends suggests emerging opportunities in secondary and tertiary markets, where population growth and tight housing supply create potentially lucrative investment environments. (RealPage)

5️⃣ Surplus Shenanigans: The U.S. government hit a surprising $258.4B budget surplus in April 2025, driven primarily by individual income taxes ($537 billion). Despite this momentary financial bright spot, the government still faces a $1T deficit for the fiscal year, with total national debt hovering around $36T. The piece emphasizes strategic financial management, particularly for real estate professionals, by showcasing passive income opportunities like rental properties and alternative investment vehicles like real estate crowdfunding platforms and REITs. These options allow investors to generate steady income streams without traditional property management challenges, potentially hedging against inflation as property values and rental rates tend to rise with living costs. (Yahoo!)

6️⃣ Groceries are Economic Cockroaches: Grocery-anchored retail will be a resilient and attractive investment opportunity in 2025. With a remarkably low 3.5% vacancy rate and accounting for 31% of all retail acquisitions in Q1, these centers are outperforming other retail segments amid tariff uncertainties. Sales in grocery-anchored centers have surged nearly 16% year-over-year, attracting significant institutional capital, with players like Nuveen investing $320M in the sector. Major REITs and grocery chains increasingly take ownership stakes, signaling long-term confidence. The sector offers unique advantages, including consistent consumer demand, operational efficiency, and potential inflation-hedging rent structures. (CRE Daily)