• The typical home seller has owned their home for nine years.
• The median tenure in home has progressively increased over the last several years from a low of 6 years in 2007.
• Sellers of detached single-family homes, which account for the largest share of homes sold, owned their home for a median of 10 years.
• Younger sellers tend to have the shortest tenure in the home – those aged 18 to 34 sold their home within six years, compared to those aged 65 to 74 who sold their home after a tenure of 14 years.
• Sellers with no children in the home had a tenure in home of 11 years versus 7 years for those sellers that had children under 18 years old in the home.
• For more on the 2011 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, click here.

A number of Realtors® responding to the February 2012 Realtors Confidence Index survey, indicated that prospective home buyers had difficulty in qualifying for a loan. Although interest rates are currently low, some prospective purchasers are reported as having problems in qualifying. A comparison of FICO scores for transactions as reported by Realtors® responding to the RCI compared with FICO scores reported by Fannie Mae’s “Acquisition Profile by Key Product Features” shows that credit availability to lower scoring applicants seems to have declined.