Top 10 Mind-Blowing Money Stats (2026 Edition)

The median age of a first-time home buyer in the United States is now 40 years old. That is an all-time high. For context, in 2020 the median age was 33, and in 2010 it was just 30. This is not what the system is supposed to look like, and it is the first of ten statistics that the hosts of The Money Guy Show unpack in this episode—each one designed to show where the typical American is going wrong, and each one paired with a specific, actionable rule for doing better.

Why Homeownership and Debt Are Getting Harder

The jump in the home-buying age is driven by two forces: price and interest rates. The median sale price of an existing home is $429,000, and a 30-year conventional mortgage now carries a 7.2% rate. The hosts illustrate the pain with a concrete example: a $400,000 home with 5% down. At 3% interest (the recent low), the monthly payment is about $1,600. At 7.2%, the same house costs just under $2,600 per month—a 62% increase with no change except the rate. National rents have also risen, but only by 31% over the same period. The hosts’ key framework for buyers is the "3525 rule": put down as little as 3%, plan to stay in the home for at least five years, and keep total monthly housing costs below 25% of gross income. They also emphasize that renting is a perfectly valid path to building wealth.