According to @burrytracker, the age of first-time home buyers has reached a new all-time high, signaling ongoing affordability stress that can influence housing-linked equities and macro risk positioning, source: @burrytracker. For historical context, the National Association of Realtors reported a record median age of 36 for first-time buyers in 2022 and 35 in 2023, indicating a persistently elevated entry age versus prior cycles, source: National Association of Realtors, 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Traders can monitor homebuilder proxies XHB and ITB for relative strength and volume as direct plays on U.S. residential construction demand, source: State Street Global Advisors for XHB and iShares for ITB. Stock-specific liquidity and order trends in DHI, LEN, TOL, and PHM may be especially sensitive to affordability headlines given their large-scale U.S. exposure, source: company filings and investor presentations from D.R. Horton, Lennar, Toll Brothers, and PulteGroup. Mortgage-rate direction remains a key confirmation variable; watch the 30-year fixed rate from Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for shifts that could alter first-time buyer eligibility and purchase activity, source: Freddie Mac PMMS. For crypto traders, housing affordability feeds into rate-cut expectations and real-yield dynamics that have been linked to risk sentiment; research has documented negative correlations between Bitcoin and real yields during parts of the post-2020 cycle, source: Bank for International Settlements 2022 research and Kaiko market analyses.