Buying a Home for the Long Haul

Home buyers plan to stay a while — maybe forever — in their next homes, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2025 “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.” The length of time is a median of 15 years, with close to one third (28%) of buyers hoping the purchase will be their “forever home.” The finding surprisingly applies to first-time and repeat home buyers. What’s behind this move to stay put, and what will keep you happy with your next (or first) home over the long haul?

Why Buyers Want a Long-Term Home

The reasons range from trouble finding a home to “pure demographics,” says Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist and vice president of research at NAR. First-time home buyers “repeatedly tell us that finding a home is the most difficult task in the home-buying process,” Lautz says.

Avoiding Future Tough Markets

Home buyers who have faced a tough seller’s market where they were outbid time and again, along with higher interest rates, “are not buying a cheaper starter home,” says James Krumm, owner of Colorado’s Best Home Inspectors and lead instructor for the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. “They want to buy something for life. They’ll spend a little more money now, hoping they never have to move again.”

Demographic-Based Stability

The median age of first-time home buyers is 40. “When [you] think about the stability of one’s life at 40 versus someone who’s in their late 20s or early 30s, it’s a different mindset,” Lautz says.

What to Look for in a Long-Term Home

When people don’t want to move, they “evolve to accept the challenges of their home rather than make a change,” says Helen Miernicki, associate broker at Realty World-We Get Results in Schuylkill County, Pa. Home buyers looking for a maybe-forever home need to think about whether the home they purchase will accommodate their future selves and can be upgraded. The following three areas are primary considerations.

Indoor Space

• Stairs: Are you looking at a two-story home, and do you have back issues? Is the laundry room several flights down? Is there a step up into the shower that’s difficult to navigate?
• Floor plan: Do you work from home and plan to continue doing so? Is there an extra bedroom that can be used as flex space for an office or a guest room? Will you need extra space and bedrooms for kids in the future or to convert bedrooms when they leave home?
• Accessibility: Only 1% of homes in the U.S. have been built with Universal Design principles, according to 2019 data from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. Universal Design principles aim to make buildings accessible to the greatest number of people at every age and stage. For example, a teen on crutches might benefit as much from a zero-threshold shower as an elderly person in a wheelchair.

Location Needs

“You can remodel a house or fix things like the furnace, roof, or windows. What you can’t fix is the location,” says Jarrod Nixon, broker owner at Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties in Durango, Colo.

Do you or will you need to be near schools for current or future children? Do you need to be near health care facilities or doctor’s offices? What about lifestyle? If you plan to ski every weekend you probably want easy access to the slopes.

These factors may seem obvious, but the “long-term view doesn’t always come to mind when you’re wowed by a house,” says Carrie Vos, a real estate agent for ERA Reardon Realty Great Lakes in West Michigan.

Major Expenses

Think about big-ticket items — “structural things, like HVAC systems that might need replacing, or kitchens and bathrooms that need renovation, which is expensive and disruptive,” Vos says.

You may want to factor in the following items. Costs depend on model and materials, usage, and level of maintenance:

• Furnace: Typically lasts 15 to 20 years before it needs replacing. The average replacement cost is $4,700.
• HVAC system: Should last about 20 years. The average cost to replace the system ranges from $11,590 to $14,100 according to Modernize.com.
• Refrigerator: Typically lasts 10 to 20 years. A new refrigerator costs an average $675 to $2,500, including installation, according to HomeGuide.com.
• Dishwasher: Typically lasts nine to 16 years. An average standard-size appliance costs on average $400 to $1,200, HomeGuide.com reports.
• Roof: An asphalt roof, the most common type, will last about 20 years. The cost to replace a roof on most homes can range from $6,777 to $25,000, according to inchcalculator.com. Asphalt shingles are the least costly, at about $425 to $825 per square foot, including installation.

If you don’t like the idea of near-term replacement, consider a newly built home with new everything. “Since 2020, new home prices have come down almost 30%, with the median home price at a little over $400,000,” says Rose Quint, assistant vice president of survey research at the National Association of Home Builders. That makes them competitive with prices of existing homes.

As you look for a forever home, you’ll benefit from working with a real estate agent who knows what you probably don’t. “It’s not about home buyers’ needs now,” Vos says. “It’s about identifying their needs down the road.”

Stacey Freed writes about the built environment, lifestyle issues, education, and pets. Her work has been published in “The New York Times,” “Real Simple,” and “USA Today,” as well as at AARP.com and Forbes.com. She sits on the board of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

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