I think one thing that is keeping people afloat is the number of elderly parents that have passed away over the pass few years. Many died from Covid, others after getting the vaccine. The “boomer” parent’s homes (with no mortgage) are being sold for several times the amount paid for them 30 or 40 years ago.
These sales are giving their 30 to 60 year old children a lot of money to spend. Many of those that died were from the generation that believed in saving money, paying off their mortgage early, and not spending money they didn’t have. They also believed in having lots of life insurance so we have relatively young people getting 250 thousand to one million dollars dropped in their lap (depending on the number of heirs).
I wonder if there have been any studies done on the amount of life insurance pay-outs and probated estate sales done over the pass three years?
That’s an interesting angle: Money forwarded from the previous generation.