Dive summary:

• First time home-buyers, who are seen as essential to a recovery that can keep going, are becoming a smaller percentage of those purchasing homes, numbers from the National Association of Home Builders show.
• In the past year, first-timers have made up about 30% of the market, though they have averaged 40% over the past 30 years, and they are being squeezed out by rising prices, investors buying homes and the lack of an equally strong recovery in jobs and wages.
• The analysis came as sales of existing homes fell 1.2% from May to June for an annual pace last month of 5.08 million, though that was still 15.2% ahead of June 2012.

From the article:

"First-time buyers are important to get the housing market to move to a new plateau," said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist with Mizuho Securities USA Inc. "Without them, you just get stuck at a marginal recovery environment." ...