Posted on 05/03/2024 5:10:58 AM PDT by Libloather
Baby boomers are refusing to downsize in their golden years, according to a Redfin study, which found that the generation born between 1946 and 1964 owns nearly three in 10 (28.2 percent) large homes in the nation—nearly twice as many as millennial households with kids (14 percent).
This is happening despite boomers' kids having long left the nest and their households having shrunk to one or two people. Instead of selling their large properties and moving to a smaller place, boomers are turning the extra bedrooms into hobby rooms and guest rooms for visiting family members.
Read more: What Is a Home Equity Loan?
While it's understandable why boomers are holding on to their mortgage-free large homes, which are likely cheaper than what a new, smaller property might cost them now, their choice to stay put is having a profound impact on the U.S. housing market, contributing to keeping inventory tight. Some 54 percent of boomers own their homes and no longer need to pay a mortgage, according to Redfin.
The historic supply shortage in the country, which is mainly because the U.S. hasn't built enough homes since the 2007-2008 crisis, has kept prices up, even when demand dipped between late summer 2022 and spring 2023, triggering a correction at the national level.
"The number of homes for sale is near historic lows and that is in part due to baby boomers holding on to their homes and aging in place," Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's chief economist, told Newsweek.
"The larger problem is that there isn't enough new construction being built to meet demand from Gen Zers and millennials or from baby boomers who would want to downsize in retirement."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Count us in on that group. Two of us. Three acres. 4,000-sq.-ft. house on the river. No mortgage. We’re goin’ nowhere until/unless absolutely necessary.
More than enough room for a live-in caregiver to have his own personal space in the future if it comes to that.
Are we supposed to feel guilty?
Retirement isn't about "downsizing." Retirement is about enjoying the fruits of your life-long labor and living comfortably and spaciously. That means having a driveway full of automobiles if you want. It means having enough acreage to shoot guns and not disturb your neighbors. It means having enough acreage to not have to look at your neighbors if you so choose. It means having a big enough house, or enough houses on your place to accommodate visitors for an overnight stay. In other words, it means not having to live like a forgotten piece of trash in the wastebasket as liberals think you should live.
3RB/2B, just the 2 of us now the kids are grown up. Thing is, it’s 90% paid off, low interest, low monthly mortgage. No way I could buy smaller or rent anywhere close to the good deal I have going on now. Zero incentive to sell, ton of incentive to not sell.
Looks like a Millenial, many of whom like to blame Boomers for everything.
Or because they need a large asset to sell in case they need residential care.
In any case, it’s their private property.
The shortage, and it is indeed a shortage, not a scarcity, is Deep State’s doing.
This person knows nothing about new home construction. This is no economy for a builder to be burdened with the interest payment on spec homes. However, if a customer wants a home, any builder would sign them up today if they have the $$. If you want and can afford a new home, you can have one.
Home building is not a zero sum game last I checked you can build more homes, as many as are needed in a near infinite variety of shapes and sizes, something for everyone.
“Throw away” culture mentality who insists everyone should be perpetually in debt on credit and never paid off and solvent. Probably trades in cars every time they need a new set of tires.
“The larger problem is that there isn’t enough new construction being built to meet demand from Gen Zers and millennials or from baby boomers who would want to downsize in retirement.”
Local building codes dictate what size home you can build. Most have a minimum square feet you are allowed to build in certain areas. Why? More taxes by the square foot. So it is not always the “choice” of the builder at all.
We have a big home. We’ve told our sons they can stay as long as they want. They can save a lot of money. Heck, they can stay until they get married. Maybe even longer if mama and the new wives get along. I would be very happy with that.
Well, sure. I mean, in the name of "climate," the government is already well on its way to dictating who can own what sort of automobile, right?
People need to wake the eff up to what's happening. The main problem with Boomers nowadays is that, for the most part, they blithely go about what's left of their lives, oblivious to the reality that the country they think they live in no longer exists. Oh, sure, they perceive all the problems and annoyances, but, hey, if enough people just vote for the right person next time, all will be fine.
Pathetic reporting. If there are “smaller homes” available for boomers to downsize to, then let the millenials buy those homes. They need starter homes, not mcmansions. They don’t have kids much anyway so they don’t need the larger homes. Secondly, other reports show something like 30% of grown children are still living with their parents so the “empty nest” idea is for many boomers a fiction.
Bottom line, the market is working, just not the way some would-be social engineers want it to. Tough.
Going to have to comment on this one. But don’t have time at the moment.
She’s a young Italian, and lives in London. And she’s an expert on the kind of house you should have. And also Ukraine according to her profile.
And size is not always an optional choice... Local building codes dictate this. See #28.
Insert GIF of Asian chick, crying.
“Boo hoo you slacker post gen-x generations.
Interesting choice of words.
We actually “upsized” last year.
2010-2016 - had a 5,00 sq.-ft, house on the river, 2.5 acres.
2016 - downsized to a 3,000 sq.-ft. house in an aleged upscale subdivision. The week we moved in, I named the house “The Slough Of Despond”. Hubby wanted it; I cried. Neighbors so effing close we couldn’t enjoy our beautiful screen porch because there was no privacy. HOA from hell. Sub-standard homes built across the street from us (we knew some drug stuff was happening). Never been sadder.
2023 - Had had enough, so sold that house from hell and went back to a large house on acreage on the river.
The only problem we have with housing inventory is the tens of millions of illegals, H1-Bs, and “amnesty” seekers taking up housing space.
Why the nerve of those “boomers”! Work for decades to pay off the mortgage, now have a nice, cozy home mortgage-free where they raised the kids, have great memories, and like their neighbors, but they won’t GET OUT!
Such rotten people.
Did the author discuss the housing demands of THIRTY MILLION illegals, TEN of which FJB brought in?
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