More Gen Xers are buying and selling homes, and that’s important for the market, according to the National Association of Realtors. The group’s latest research finds the generation sandwiched between millennials and baby boomers made up nearly 30 percent of recent buyers.

(Photo by Christina Estes - KJZZ)

Jeff and Robin Sahid bought a home in Scottsdale.

Meet the Sahids

Jeff Sahid and his family are preparing to move into their new house in Scottsdale’s McCormick Ranch neighborhood.

“They’re putting cabinets in today,” he said above the noise of workers.

At 37, Sahid is on the low end of the Gen X age range, but he’s representative of many 40-somethings.

“I bought a home actually before we were married 10 years ago, and it was kind of at that peak kind of time frame,” he said.

At the height of the housing boom, Gen Xers were buying their first homes, starting families, and entering the middle part of their careers.

“They weren’t in a situation where they could really just settle in and say, 'you know I’m going to ride this out,'” said Jessica Lautz, managing director of survey research and communications at the National Associations of Realtors.

“A number of them were hit by the recession so hard that they had a foreclosure or short sale,” Lautz said. “So 14 percent of recent Gen X buyers actually did have a distressed sale in the past.”

Slightly more than 20 percent of Gen X sellers wanted to sell earlier but couldn’t because their homes were worth less than their mortgages. Like the Sahids.

“I think it definitely slowed down a lot of the growing and stuff we wanted to do in terms of moving on to the next house because we were underwater for over 10 years,” Jeff Sahid said.

“I feel a little bit better than five years ago for sure,” Robin Sahid said. “We have a little more money, a little more savings.”

A stronger job market and rising home values are helping more Gen Xers earn enough equity to move. But it’s still not easy. It took the Sahids several years to save for a down payment and close the deal.

“It got a little frustrating when you put offers in on ten-plus houses and you got outbid,” Robin Sahid said. “But you just keep going.”

Low Inventory Squeezing Some Shoppers

(Photo by Erik Jensen)

GenXers made up 28 percent of recent homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Realtor Erik Jensen with Realty Executives Arizona said inventory is down.

“Inventory dropped in 2012, and we haven’t seen it come back to the same levels it was in 2003 and 2003,” he explained.

Jensen said investors swooped in when prices were low, and they’re holding those houses, often renting them. Houses priced less than $200,000 are hardest to find, their inventory is down 30 percent from last year.

”So for that first time homebuyer that’s trying to get into the market, it makes it a really tough market,” Jensen said.

He said a healthy market needs more people like the Sahids to trade up and create more opportunities for millennials to move into houses. 

Walking out the sliding glass door of their single-story house, Jeff and Robin Sahid point to the yard.

“This is really what kind of sold us on it,” Jeff Sahid said.

“We have a huge tree in the backyard, which we love, you know thinking about our daughter,” said Robin Sahid. “She hasn’t ever had a chance because our last house didn’t have a yard to just run around and explore and this has that and we also have a pool.”

Bubble Concerns

They’re happy, yet cautious. Jeff Sahid can’t help but wonder whether he’s buying at another peak.

Robin Sahid said Jeff has friends that worry they’re going to “buy a house and then all of the market’s going to crash again and then they’re upside down.” 

Jensen said five years ago, the average selling price in metro Phoenix was $170,000. Today, it’s $286,000. He understands why some buyers are concerned but thinks prices will stabilize and said things have changed since the Great Recession.

“A lot of people were highly leveraged. Taking out a loan from one property in order to buy a second property,” he said. “We had zero down-payment loans. Now, some of those still exist and the lending is loosening up a little bit, but it’s not to the same regard that it was previously.”

Once the kitchen remodel is complete, Robin and Jeff will move-in to a house they could call home for a few years, or forever, another key selling point.

“I think that made us comfortable buying it and pulling the trigger on this one,” Robin said.

The full generational report from the National Association of Realtors can be found here.