Baby Boomer Home Ownership

To say the Florida real estate market is hot is a drastic understatement.  The prices of housing is shocking and folks are paying a lot more than asking price.  So I was interested in the article last week, the New York Times ran,  Baby Boomers: Rich With Real Estate and Not Letting Go.

The concept of aging in place, already growing in popularity before the pandemic, has found renewed interest among baby boomers, some of whom are now wary of nursing homes, where at least one third of U.S. Covid-19 deaths have occurred. The trend is intensifying pandemic home-inventory shortages and price increases, frustrating younger buyers who want to grab their share of real estate wealth.

The bulk of real estate wealth was long held by baby boomers’ predecessors, the Silent Generation (those born before 1946), but they generally followed the familiar pattern of selling later in life and moving in with extended family, to assisted-living facilities or nursing homes. Aging-in-place boomers are disrupting this trend. This week’s chart, using Federal Reserve data, shows that boomers surpassed the Silent Generation in real estate wealth in 2001, and have yet to yield that position.

Although the Gen-Xers are buying…and selling, it’s not at the same rate as prior generations. Are you thinking “so what?” with a shoulder shrug. Consider this. “In 2029, the youngest baby boomers will have their 65th birthdays and the oldest their 83rd. As the tail end of this generation heads to retirement, some will sell their homes, and if they don’t, eventually their estates will. But unless a lot more homes are built, and fast, the younger generations will simply have to wait for their share of real estate riches.”