All the numbers show buying a home for the first time is getting harder and harder for people. Rising home prices and now mortgage rates are squeezing would-be first-time buyers out of the market. 

A new profile from the National Association of Realtors has just found American home buyers are older, whiter and wealthier than at any time in recent memory. First-time buyers now account for the smallest share of the market in 41 years. Austin Clemens is director of economic measurement policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.