New Delhi, March 14 -- Mortgage rates are more than half a point lower than last spring. Home price gains are negligible. And first-time buyers, long a missing link of the housing market, represented some 34% of February sales, one of the highest rates in five years, according to National Association of Realtors data.

One reason: Housing costs are the most affordable they've been relative to median U.S. family income since 2022, according to an NAR index. "First-time buyers are perhaps eagerly wanting to take advantage of the improvement in affordability," says Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.

Still, buyers aren't fully back. February's sales, at a 4.09 million pace, rose from the prior month's 4.02 million, beating estimates of 3.8...