More unmarried couples are buying homes together

More couples are becoming homeowners before tying the knot.

Unmarried couples make up 18% of all first-time homebuyers, up from just 4% in 1985, according to a 2022 report by the National Association of Realtors.

The organization mailed out a survey in July 2022 and received a total of 4,854 responses from homebuyers who bought a primary residence between July 2021 and June 2022.

“Unmarried couples have been on the rise [as homebuyers] and now they’re at the highest point that we’ve recorded,” said Jessica Lautz, the Washington, D.C.-based vice president of research of the National Association of Realtors. 

Buying a house is a bigger commitment than renting, so while these couples may be eager to own a home, there are a few things they should consider before purchasing a property together.

Many young, unmarried couples live together, often for financial reasons. About 3 in 5 unmarried couples in the U.S. live with their partners, according to a report by the Thriving Center of Psychology.

Splitting the cost of housing, which can be a big part of your budget, makes sense.

Even so, unlike married homebuyers, almost half of unmarried ones — 46% — made financial sacrifices, including picking up secondary jobs, to finance their purchase, the NAR report found.

“Housing affordability really is a struggle, so pulling your finances together as an unmarried couple can make a lot of sense to move forward on that transaction,” said Lautz, who is also the deputy chief economist of NAR.

The typical unmarried couple buying a home together for the first time was roughly 32-year-old millennials with a combined average household income of $72,500, according to Lautz. Additionally, these shoppers were more likely than married couples to receive loans — 4% versus 3% — or be gifted money from friends and family — 12% versus 7%.

One reason unmarried people may decide to buy homes with their partners is the strength in numbers that pairing up offers when it comes to qualifying for financing, as real estate prices and interest rates remain high, said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage in New York.

While one could argue couples should simply get married if they’re already investing in a house, some people may opt to keep things, such as their estates, separate.

“There are reasons why people don’t get married; it’s not an automatic given these days,” Cohn noted.

But unmarried couples should carefully approach making a commitment of this scale.

There are often no legal protections they can fall back on, said Cohn. If one person decides to leave, the other can be saddled with the entire mortgage and may not be able to afford it, she said. 

“In order to walk away from a marriage, you have to get divorced, so there’s more…