Apparently the acts of packing, moving, unpacking, and resettling have lost their luster for a growing percentage of homeowners.

According to the Dallas Morning News, a new report by the National Association of Realtors reveals that average homeowners moved every five years in 1985. Over the last year, the median tenure in a home was 10 years, which is the longest time span ever recorded in the association’s annual nationwide survey of homebuyers and sellers.

"Overall, buyers expect that they will live in their homes for 15 years," Realtor analysts wrote in the report. "The expected tenure increases with age, and is also higher among repeat buyers. The biggest factor that would cause a buyer to move from their newly purchased home is due to life changes, including additions to their family, marriage, children moving out, or retirement."

While this isn’t good news for the real estate industry that derives its income from property turnover, it also contributes to the shortage of home inventory.

And homeowners have gone full-circle. During the recession and housing crash, when home values were at an all-time low, many owners couldn’t sell because they were underwater on their mortgages. Now that property values are skyrocketing, owners are hesitant to sink their equity into another mortgage. And with the housing shortage, they risk finding a better house in their price range. 

"The older people are working longer and staying put," James Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, told the News. “The notion of people retiring and moving to sunny [climates] — there's not that much of it."

From baby boomers to millennials, far fewer people are willing to sell-out and relocate for job opportunities.

For many people, the amount of time it took to become a homeowner is all the reason to stay put. In 1981, the average age of a homebuyer nationwide was 31. This year it was 45, and the median age of repeat homebuyers is 54, according to the report.