First-time buyers dominate Ohio housing market

Data: LendingTree; Note: Mortgage offer refers to any type of mortgage offered to a LendingTree marketplace user by a LendingTree lender; Map: Axios Visuals

First-time homebuyers received 63% of mortgage offers in Ohio in 2023, per a recent LendingTree report.

Why it matters: It's one more sign current homeowners are still feeling the golden-handcuffs effect of not wanting to give up existing low-rate mortgages, Axios' Brianna Crane and Simran Parwani write .

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The big picture: Nationwide, around two-thirds of mortgage offers in 2023 went to first-time homebuyers, per the report.

• The share of first-time buyers has increased over the past five years.

Reality check: Fewer people overall took out mortgages in 2023.

• "First-time buyers simply appear to make up a larger portion of a relatively small pool of buyers," LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel says.

Zoom out: President Biden proposes to loosen up the market via a $10,000 tax credit to home sellers.

• The credit is aimed at middle-class families angling to move up the "housing ladder" and to empty nesters looking to "right size," the administration says.

Go deeper: Inside Biden's plan to unlock the housing market's golden handcuffs

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