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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBaby boomers are buying up all the houses
Washington PostLately, grandparents have been edging out younger buyers who are struggling to get into the market for the first time. Nowadays, first-time buyers make up 32 percent of the market, well below an average of 38 percent since 1981, according to NAR. They’re also more likely to be in their mid-30s today, in contrast to their late 20s in the early 1980s.
The result is yet another quirk of the post-covid economy, and in particular, a housing market that has proved remarkably strong. As the Federal Reserve hoisted interest rates to 22-year highs, the widespread expectation was that a subsequent spike in mortgage rates would zap buyer demand. But even while the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage approaches 8 percent, the housing downturn was short-lived.
And in the meantime, a new picture is emerging of the buyers who still find a way to get a house: They’re older, and because many of them sold a home before buying, they’re also wealthier.
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getagrip_already
(17,802 posts)Older buyers can't keep big homes forever.
They will sell them as they age and mobity drives them into smaller, more manageable spaces.
I'm suspect of this data. It's almost as though they are excluding rental or airbnb buyers, and are including them as older homeowners.
That makes more sense. The older people I know aren't buying up. They are downscaling. Unless they are buying income properties for retirement.
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)Boomers are selling their large homes, taking the cash and downsizing into smaller homes...but those are the houses most young people would be likely to buy.
Vinca
(53,994 posts)in a really desirable area that is totally paid off. It's 3 times too big for us at this stage of our lives. I could sell it, but there's nothing to buy. There are so few listings overall, that when something comes on the market buyers are all over it in a nanosecond and it's a bidding war. At this point, if I could afford it, I'd tear down the house we have and build smaller one in its place. If I could afford it. Which I can't. I do feel sorry for young buyers. We started out with a $25,000 shithole 50 years ago and kept buying up. Today even the shitholes are expensive.
Evolve Dammit
(21,777 posts)Rate which was a deal in 1985.
brush
(61,033 posts)as it makes since to downsize, and re-locate to areas of the country with lower priced homes.
TheRealNorth
(9,647 posts)That might make sense for boomers. However, it also might put more strain on the market for "starter homes".
viva la
(4,598 posts)We're going to move to a retirement village in our town. That's not taking a house away from a young family because it's an over-55 place (and much more densely built than my current neighborhood).
As for our current house, we're not going to sell it, but we'll be giving it to one of our children (who is a millennial).
So there's an intra-generational transfer, even if it's not on the open market.
I would ask where we boomers are buying. Lots of people retire to the south for the weather (not me-- can't stand the heat or politics). They're selling the houses in the towns where they raised their kids.
Now it's hard for young families to buy a home now-- always was, in my experience (my first mortgage was 11.75%), but three years ago, interest rates were historically low and a lot of people got affordable mortgates. I can't blame those who have a 3.5% mortgage for refusing to sell their house right now.
In this modest neighborhood, after decades of people staying put, they're finally moving out (often to retirement places), and their houses are being bought by young families. It really might just be another few years before there's a huge flood of houses on the market. Alas, they'll mostly look like they were last remodeled in the 80s, I say as I look at my wallpaper and gas fireplace.
marble falls
(71,932 posts)
budkin
(6,849 posts)That really worked out great for everyone!
viva la
(4,598 posts)I work with an elderly support agency. And I can tell you some stories about old people stuck in the little home they bought or inherited when they were 30 or so. They often have their children and grandchildren living there. The house needs lots of work-- it might be 100 years old. They worked for 40 years at a low wage job and didn't get a pension, and they're living on social security and whatever the kids can contribute. They get subsidized meals and need Medicaid to supplement Medicare. They can't afford to fix the house up to put it on sale, and they can't afford to move to a decent nursing home. They'll die in those homes, and their kids will have to sell them for $30K to some "We Buy Ugly Homes" flipper. That's the reality for many boomers in my town.
I'm fortunate to have done okay, married well, though because of recessions and high unemployment and taking care of kids, I myself never had a job with real benefits, and never made more than $45K a year. If I'd gotten divorced 15 years ago, say, I'd be in the situation of many of my single women friends, who are 62 and hoping to live long enough to get Medicare and social security. Many of them haven't owned a home in decades, if ever. People might not realize that non-whites and women of older boomer age were actually barred from many public colleges, especially the prestige ones, and were barred or harassed from well-paying professions. They never even got a chance to start in those premier jobs that ended up with some guys doing quite well. Younger boomers legally had more opportunities, but wouldn't you know it, soon as they could get the jobs, many employers stopped with the pensions. And of course, as soon as we started families, staying in work became quite problematic.
If you think all boomers made top dollar and had pensions and bought a house at the bottom of the market and could sell it now at the top of the market, you are simply wrong. Even those of us who did okay went through deep recessions, a decade of the sort of inflation you can only imagine, and great uncertainty on a global scale, and with everyone of those dislocations, some fell off the ladder, especially those in the working class. The last 15 years have been so smooth, relatively (even with the pandemic), that I know many younger people think that's what it was like in the 70s and 80s (when 400,000 well-paid manufacturing jobs disappeared in my state). The year I graduated from college, unemployment was 15% in my state, and prosperity tended to be regional. So even when the national economy recovered, it was another decade before the Rust Belt states got healthy.
Not all boomers are Bill Gates. Some are like my friend Sue, who has chronic pain and autoimmune illnesses, and was recently laid off from her job with benefits (one year before she qualified for the pension), and isn't quite old enough to get even minimal social security, and can't do the physical work she had before, and hasn't been able to get another job. "Who wants to hire a broken-down old lady with major health expenses and an attitude?" she says. She has $1200 income a month right now, lives in a one-BR subsidized apartment, and has no hope at 61. She doesn't have a house to sell-- never made enough to qualify for a mortgage.
Don't mean to lecture. But inter-generational warfare hurts us, and helps only the very rich who benefit whenever the rest of us fight each other rather than them.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)
I have known a lot of poor old women, and one of them could have been me. I never forget that part.
Evolve Dammit
(21,777 posts)
meadowlander
(5,133 posts)
Baby Boomers are 21% of the population but hold 50% of the wealth. Gen X is 19% of the population and is eyeing up retirement with half as much in pensions, a much higher percentage of people who could never afford home ownership, a large percentage of people still paying down student loan debt, lower relative wages, less job security, etc. And this is probably the wealthiest they are ever going to be.
There are rich people and poor people in every generation. There are adverse events and boom periods for every generation. But if you're arguing that there has been a completely level playing field in opportunities to accumulate wealth between Boomers as a cohort and Gen X as a cohort and Millennials as a cohort then you are simply demonstrably wrong.
brush
(61,033 posts)many, but not all, inherited from their parents generation, as will the ones who come after them...but again, not all because there are a lot of boomers just getting by.
20-30 years from now it'll be "those damn Millennials have all the wealth."
brush
(61,033 posts)Back when many boomers were younger and just getting out of school and/or entering the job market, there were recessions, then a boom then rinse and repeat. Interest rates were in the mid-to-high-teens.
It was no picnic.
Stargazer99
(3,517 posts)tell reality for many in this nation
Diamond_Dog
(40,578 posts)I can’t add another thing. Many Boomers aren’t as well off as the media wants young people to believe, and we’re not the enemy. 
calguy
(6,154 posts)over a lifetime of hard work and paying down our mortgages. Over the course of twenty or thirty years, the value of our houses has increased substantially, which accounts for what many see as our 'wealth".
To call us 'wealthy' is a slap in the face to the years we've worked to accumulate whatever we have. We are not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. To think otherwise is simply ludicrous.
NCIndie
(556 posts)
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)NCIndie
(556 posts)Hekate
(100,133 posts)NCIndie
(556 posts)Your grouchy response tells me you think I'm a young, first time house buyer. Am I close?
Hekate
(100,133 posts)NCIndie
(556 posts)
viva la
(4,598 posts)That's the classy way to be impolite. 
TheRealNorth
(9,647 posts)Of course, there are the companies that have moved in to scoop up the houses they can turn into rentals.
NCIndie
(556 posts)Aussie105
(7,921 posts)Forget that they have had many more decades to accumulate wealth compared to young people.
It's a common pattern.
I used to be young with no money. Now I'm older and have plenty.
I'm a Boomer, feel free to blame me for . . . whatever.
RobinA
(10,478 posts)The shortage of reasonably priced housing is the Boomer's fault because they want...reasonably priced housing. Boomers should quit their jobs so young people can have them and not buy housing so young people can buy it. I mean, what's wrong with those Boomers? You can live in a tent under the freeway on social security, why so selfish?
Signed - Boomer still working at 66 and not ever able to buy any house
flor-de-jasmim
(2,282 posts)Hekate
(100,133 posts)Along with the narrative that we are oblivious to the future of the planet because we won’t be here.
Aussie105
(7,921 posts)Nature should have skipped that Evil & Greedy lot!
Then again, this Boomer doesn't mind sending the next generation some money when the need arises.
Bank of Mom and Pop and all that.
viva la
(4,598 posts)The inheritances of our millennial children will, of course, only increase the inequality. But who turns down what their parents leave them?
getagrip_already
(17,802 posts)That we owe Gen x jobs where they don't need to work, or even make an appearance remotely unless they feel like it.
Wingus Dingus
(9,173 posts)getagrip_already
(17,802 posts)viva la
(4,598 posts)And they're probably used to be called "slackers" in their 4th decade of working.
DBoon
(24,988 posts)failed because they did not create an environmental utopia, and for this are to blame for global warming
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)There’s no way I could afford a mortgage in the current environment.
FakeNoose
(41,634 posts)... and then I'm staying put. My house was built about 70 years ago, but it's still in good shape, thank goodness. The brand-new houses around here are completely unaffordable, even for the average baby-boomer.
It's true that some boomers sold their paid-for houses at just the right time, and those people made a killing. Not me though, and not most people I know.
Liberal In Texas
(16,270 posts)How many boomers are sitting around with 5 or 10 houses they don't need?
No. One buys a new house and sells the old one. Many boomers want to down-size faced with empty nests. Plus, housing prices went way over what they should realistically valued at with the ridiculously low interest rates. They're starting to come back down but first time buyers may have to wait some more for prices to moderate more.
Aussie105
(7,921 posts)Young person: I want what my parents currently have, no, I want better than that - and I want it NOW!
Boomer parent: Took us 30 years to get to where we are. Be patient.
Our war time parents did it tough, your grandpa rode a bicycle to work and didn't own a car until he was 50, dinner often was mashed potatoes with onion and nothing else, etc, blah blah.
Young person: Not listening! I want it all now!
Boomers when young: Can't afford what I want, better lower my sights and start saving.
Looking for a decent job will help!
Something Boomers learnt from their war time parents. But the message didn't transfer further down the line, unfortunately.
FakeNoose
(41,634 posts)... but there's another issue at work.
I'm a boomer so I can say this about us boomers. Many of us grew up with very selfish attitudes, unlike our parents. As a matter of fact, my theory is that our parents' generation had to sacrifice so much while they were growing up, that they wanted their children - us - to not have to give up anything. So we grew up self-centered (some of us) and our children were raised even worse than that.
Nobody understands what it is to work hard and save your money and pay off a 30-year mortgage any more. Everyone expects to get everything they want yesterday.
viva la
(4,598 posts)And can now sell that and buy another one presumably?
What exactly would be the alternative?
Hekate
(100,133 posts)That’s the part of a housing shortage that no one wants to say out loud.
It’s all: damn the Boomers for living in homes they’ve paid off that are too big for them. It’s never: look at this nice development of affordable smaller homes in their home-town near shopping and doctors.
Unless such a place has hefty age- restrictions written in, those places will be snapped up as starter homes.
There’s a housing shortage.
brush
(61,033 posts)housing situation and I've thought even of selling, banking the money and renting until I the market does what it's gonna do...let the landlord worry about keeping the house or apartment up, as you know. There's always an expenses that pops up.
llmart
(17,622 posts)Boomer parents didn't want their children to give anything up? Have you met my parents??? (They've actually been dead for over 50 years.) Seriously though, my parents had seven children and my father made it very clear that once each of us graduated from high school we damn well better have a job within the next couple of weeks or else you'd be on the street. If you got a job, you were expected to pay room and board, which back then was most of a paycheck. In addition to that, if you wanted a car, you bought a $200 clunker on whatever money you could save up from your measly paycheck. My first job was as a Girl Friday (now there's a term for you), in a law firm making $1.75 an hour. I was 17.
Everything I own today including my house is because I worked my butt off at everything I did. I learned very early on that it was either sink or swim so I was and still am frugal. What my parents taught me was to be resourceful and to live within or below my means, and even though I'm comfortable today I still will not waste money.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)1947 here. Our good fortune as kids (aside from Mom’s ability to squeeze every nickel) was our mother’s belief that a college education was the Holy Grail — and she meant the public ones, which at that time were backed by taxes from the state legislature. As a consequence I was able to make it thru to my BA by working 20 hours a week and taking classes less than full time for 6 years. Only stayed at home for the 2 years of community college.
I consider it one of the great betrayals of subsequent generations that public college and university education was made unaffordable, and that when loans were made available they were turned over to loan sharks. Were the legislatures filled with my generation at that point? I think not.
llmart
(17,622 posts)Most parents didn't think girls needed college. My father told my oldest sister who wanted to go to college that it would be a waste because she'd just get married and have kids. LOL She went anyway and it took her five years and years of waitressing until the wee hours of the evening and coming home and doing her homework by the light of a hanging light bulb in the basement - the only place she could find to study in our tiny house. She never married and never had any children.
I went to college once both of my children were in elementary school all day. I went four years full time and raised the kids and took care of the house and yard. I was 35 when I graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA summa cum laude. I have two business degrees. My parents didn't live long enough to see that.
Evolve Dammit
(21,777 posts)(Masters at USC and UCLA). Imagine that today
llmart
(17,622 posts)All of my many cousins lived in California. They were boomers also. I remember getting letters from them as a teenager and they were telling me about how college was free for in-state kids. I was so jealous of them.
viva la
(4,598 posts)>Boomers' parents didn't want their children to give anything up?
The people who went through the depression and a world war before they could vote were tough. The parents of boomers weren't indulgent in the main. For one thing, before reliable birth control, families were larger. It's really hard to indulge 5 kids.
And physical punishment was common, not just spanking but whipping and other discipline methods that would be considered child abuse now. And a lot of daily practices would have been seen as neglect now, like locking kids out at 9 am on Saturdays and telling them not to come back till dinner!
Boomers who became parents might have had more luxury to be indulgent. We were accused of being "helicopter parents" and "using time out instead of spanking" and 'giving every kid a trophy." I know I pretty constantly apologized to my kids if I yelled or made them take a nap. (I'm pretty sure my parents never once ever let the words "I'm sorry" cross their lips!)
Of course, fun as it is to generalize about generations, reality is always more individualized.
llmart
(17,622 posts)Whenever you're talking about human beings, it should be understood that there are so many differences. However, there are some generalizations that can be made about certain eras.
I can assure you that as financially comfortable as I was when I was raising them, I made sure they knew everything about how I grew up. Heck, I still talk about it with them to this day and they are 53 and 49. They had much more growing up than I did, but it was never over the top. I never wanted my children to have to grow up like I did, though it did make me more resourceful. My two had to work at something to earn some of the things they wanted even though their father and I could well afford it. They got gifts at Christmas and their birthday, and new clothes each school year, but nothing throughout the rest of the year. My son had an early morning paper route seven days a week for five years from the time he was ten years old. He got up at 5:30 AM every single day. My daughter was always babysitting once she became about twelve and she was in great demand because she was trustworthy and reliable. The neighbors used to fight over getting her lined up well in advance. She worked as a cashier in a grocery store evenings and weekends when she was in college. My son put himself through college and we never gave him one penny towards it because he was just that kind of kid. He did have several scholarships, but he went on the co-op program which was five years so he could gain experience in the semesters he wasn't in class. That way he had a resume already when he graduated.
I was probably the exception to the rule, though, because like you said, I saw plenty of other parents who did indulge their children, but mostly they were the younger boomers. Also, I've never considered the boomer generation to be people born between 1946 and 1964. I think it should be more like those born directly after the war ended when the men came home. I'd rather it was 1946 to 1952. But that's just me.
raccoon
(32,390 posts)
Mossfern
(4,716 posts)I was never spanked, never yelled at. Even though we had the biggest house on the block, I had the least toys of all my friends. When I was in my 40's I asked my mother why she wouldn't buy me toys. Her answer was that she didn't want me to expect things I wanted because you never know how things would be when I grew up. WTH? My mom wanted to go to college, but the depression hit and she needed to go to work to help support the rest of her family. There was no question as to whether I would be going to college - it was expected.
However, I disappointed my parents by not going for a teaching degree so I could have "something to fall back on" if I didn't get married." Millenials, Gen X,Y,Z females didn't need to suffer through panty girdles! Talk about spoiled.
brush
(61,033 posts)Tickle
(4,131 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)then Reagan and daddy Bush. Ugh.
viva la
(4,598 posts)I know I should have been envious, but I just felt very glad that I only had one address and I knew where my car was parked. Nine houses! It would have driven me insane.
Evolve Dammit
(21,777 posts)Tax bracket. 
Attilatheblond
(8,878 posts)I have family member who works for a Land Title Insurer. She says there are ever-changing LLCs buying up properties for investments. Basically, buying up any/all rental properties and causing the horrible rent increases in many cities. Also, more than a few of these home gobbling LLCs constantly re-incorporate because they are trying to stay one step ahead of lawsuits by investors who got fleeced and prosecutors who go after financial frauds.
There are actually title insurers with constantly updated 'watch lists' of people involved with these home gobbling LLCs due to their sketchy practices and fraud.
And this whole blame the boomers crap is just one more way those in the top economic brackets keep the rest of us fighting between ourselves. Just one more facet of divide & conquer. There are great people in every generation, and real jerks in every generation. The only winners in generational bickering are the Fat Cats.
Stargazer99
(3,517 posts)anything goes in a capitalist system
ripcord
(5,553 posts)You would think they would have the decency to either move into a retirement home or die. 
Mossfern
(4,716 posts)my husband and I are rattling around in our 5 bedroom house. All four children are long gone and on their own and we're both retired. Because of that if we downsize we're being greedy, inconsiderate and selfish?
Blame it on those who built McMansions, we live in an 1890's vernacular house.
brush
(61,033 posts)Mossfern
(4,716 posts)Wish I knew how to post a photo.
brush
(61,033 posts)Gonna try this
Let me know if the link exposes any private infohttps://imgur.com/Li3Fqy3]
brush
(61,033 posts)A porch too.
Mossfern
(4,716 posts)When we bought it 38 years ago, people though we would tear it down - it was in such horrid condition.
We've been working on it ever since. The walls were literally being held up by the wallpaper.
tinrobot
(12,062 posts)You can't be a "repeat buyer" until you've bought once.
People buy bigger houses to raise kids, then trade down to a smaller place when they retire (the proverbial "condo in Florida" ) . Since people are living longer and retiring later, my guess is that this transaction also happens later and later.
Jersey Devil
(10,833 posts)I'm a boomer, retired and wanted to downsize and cut costs, so I sold my house in NJ and moved to NC where housing costs about 40% of what it costs in NJ. I'm now in the same size house I had in NJ, paid for in cash, pocketed the difference and pay $1,600 in real estate taxes compared to the $17,000 I was paying in NJ. Why is this a problem?
Mark.b2
(797 posts)He sees many moving here doing the same thing. His favorite clients are are just-retired CA and IL transplants. They arrive having just sold their homes and ready to buy with all cash. He's got two clients, one from CA and another from TX, who he's paid several referrals to because they get friends back home to make the same move. They come visit, see the area, hear about the cost-of-living and then learn they can buy a nicer or just-as-nice house for less than half of whatever they can sell their old house.
onethatcares
(16,992 posts)over a course of 2 years. I don't think their "Boomers"
Ms. Toad
(38,641 posts)Or daughter was pre-approved for a $125,000 mortgage in 2021. She found a house for $79,000 that needed some work, and had been told that she could include money in the mortgage for the work. Within days of closing, they low-balled the appraisal and informed her that they would not give her the mortgage unless the repairs were made before closing. Not sure why they thought she would pour money into a home she didn't get own (even if the seller was willing to go along with it). We bought the home and she is buying it from us at the same interest rate as the loan she was promised by the bank. All three names are on the home, and the mortgage is recorded.
Two things seemed to be at play: a new form of redlining (property value, rather than race). So the homes in this neighborhood are in a similar price range, and once they refused to follow through on making the loan, the bank had not made a home loan below $100,000 in years. The second is that interest rates went up significantly from the time my daughter locked in her interest rate and the time she found her home.
A student of mine did something similar with his parents.
DFW
(60,186 posts)Here in the Düsseldorf area, it was particularly vexing trying to find a house because it is a center for Japanese businesses, and the Saturday real estate section of the paper was full of "Japanese concern seeks area houses for its executives, price no object." Hard to compete with for us normal mortals.
When East Germany dissolved, real estate prices again went through the roof here in the West because the government exchanged worthless East German marks one-to-one for West German marks. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans found a way to document land taken from them by the socialists, get it returned to them, and sold it for good western currency to western companies looking to build on Eastern land with (then-) cheaper Eastern labor. Like with the Japanese booms, real estate prices surged again.
Right after socialism fell, a house became available right in the neighborhood where we were renting an apartment. We were both 38. We had an assessor from my company's German bank come look at it to make sure the price was not excessive, and she said it was fine. It was one of the first (1973) houses built in our part of town. It was modest by Dallas standards (250 square meters), though it cost about five times what a similar 30 year old house in Dallas would have cost. But our girls were getting bigger, and the apartment was just too small, and we didn't want to move away. Our girls were 5 and 7, and the Anne Frank Elementary school was within a couple of minutes' walking distance. Plus, the Düsseldorf airport was half an hour away--important, as I didn't yet live here full time. The German bank offered me a mortgage, but the dollar-D-Mark rate was in flux, and if the dollar were to drop 10% or 20% (it did), I would have been in deep doo doo if I took a mortgage in D-Marks.
So, I emptied my savings, borrowed the rest from my CEO, and paid cash. Over the next 20 years, everything the guy who built the house had hidden, went wrong. The heating died in mid-winter, the electrical wiring, which he had done himself to save money, was emitting 400 volts out of the sockets (German current is 220 volts), the small back patio was bumping up in places as if a volcanic eruption were imminent, and the electricity was short-circuiting all over due to water seeping theough the walls. He had come over from East Germany, and wanted to impress people with his house. All show. So, we ended up putting a LOT of money into making the place liveable. The land was valuable, but not wildly so, as it is slightly sloping, and it took over 20 years before we were done with major repairs on the house itself. The next owner will probably demolish the place (it's 50 years old now), and put up a new one--although.....our younger daughter, the newly minted gazillionaire, wants to buy and preserve the two houses that she associates with her young life. One is the one here, and the other one is the one I grew up in. That is on a lake outside Falls Church, Virginia, and is currently occupied by the people who bought it when we were forced to sell it when our parents' estate was liquidated. We needed to sell it in 2002 to pay inheritance taxes. My wife and I don't envision selling the one we're in, primitive or not. When we have visitors, which is frequently enough, the house is as full as it was when the girls were living here. My wife is a gourmet chef, so visitors don't hesitate to let us know when they're in the area. We just installed some solar panels, which are more expensive than the oil heating the house has (and which we keep in reserve just in case), but they do deliver clean energy. If those who can afford it don't start, those who can't won't. We can, so we did. Germany is VERY thickly settled, so it's a pressing matter here.
The property taxes are modest, maybe €2000 a year, and we're just not interested in moving now. We're both 71, relatively fit and mobile. We could now afford something fancier, but just can't be bothered. We once toyed with buying a house in Cape Cod, since we go every year, but houses are SO expensive there, we just don't want to tie up money or ourselves in a residence on another continent that will be constant money drain. So we pump some money back into the US and Massachusetts economy every year by renting. The advantage of that is: once we leave, we can forget about it until next year. The time may yet come when we no longer can or want to make the trek over to North America for our summer vacation. So far, we see no reason to stop.
We do occasionally get the letter or business card stuck in our mailbox from local crooks who prey on "elderly (are we?)" people who live in houses they want to buy up cheap, but we're not senile yet, so that struff ends up in the trash as soon as it shows up.
In general, here in Central Europe, with tightly packed populations, and cities that have no empty outlying areas for suburbs and new developments, having a stand-alone house is not something all 30 somethings even try for. Developers tend to build row houses or apartment buildings with condos. A stand-alone house here is a big deal. This is not Dallas, where you just go a quarter-mile further outside town for some empty prarie on which to build the next township. Space is scarce here, and pollution is a serious problem, no matter what your house is worth.
Diamond_Dog
(40,578 posts)I’m always interested in how real life is in other countries.
DFW
(60,186 posts)But I figure I probably bored most of the people who started reading my post before they got 10% of the way through 
Not me! I love hearing about everyday life in other countries. I’ve told my son the prize German student that if he ever gets the chance to visit Germany he has to take his mother with him. LOL! I’ve also been to Finland, Sweden, Austria, and the Bavarian region of Germany although it was many many years ago.
Who knows, if the orange dictator gets back in office, we may be looking for another country to move to altogether …. although I don’t know who would want a couple old retired farts such as ourselves….
themaguffin
(5,221 posts)
MineralMan
(151,269 posts)My wife and I bought an existing house in 2021. We were downsizing and getting rid of yard chores. We're boomers. However, we sold our previous house to a young family. So, the net effect was zero, except that was the young family's first house. Both houses were existing buildings.
People buy and sell their homes for many reasons.
Oneironaut
(6,300 posts)That’s the sense I get from this article.
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)...its a story evaluating data.
Raftergirl
(1,856 posts)We did do a lot of renovating and an addition but our home is still only 1700sq feet We did it in phases so it took 10 years or so for everything to get done. And it’s a ranch so no worry about going up and down stairs as we get older.
But we couldn’t afford to do anything except stuff like painting and cosmetic fixes on our home for the first 15 years we lived here and we did not want to do anything until we could do it exactly how we wanted.
We still have a mortgage because we did a cash out refinance when we gutted the kitchen and did the family room addition, but at 2.35% mtg rate it’s not worth it to pay off.
Plenty of young couples are buying in my town. Both big houses and small houses, old houses and new houses. It’s all because we are the top rated school district in the area and people will buy anything to get in the district.
Also, people are getting married later and having children later than previous generations, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they are buying their first homes at an older age.
Demsrule86
(71,542 posts)Yavin4
(37,182 posts)You have to be 60 yrs old, or older, to be a Boomer.
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)
leftstreet
(40,681 posts)Yes, it's just a social construct, but interesting all the same.
snips
Unlike "Leading-Edge Boomers", most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and, as they reached adulthood, there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War was for the older boomers.
The name "Generation Jones" has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a "keeping up with the Joneses" competitiveness and the slang word "jones" or "jonesing", meaning a yearning or craving.[16][17][18] Pontell suggests that Jonesers inherited an optimistic outlook as children in the 1960s, but were then confronted with a different reality as they entered the workforce during Reaganomics and the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, which ushered in a long period of mass unemployment. Mortgage interest rates increased to above 12 percent in the mid-eighties,[19] making it virtually impossible to buy a house on a single income. De-industrialization arrived in full force in the mid-late 1970s and 1980s; wages would be stagnant for decades, and 401Ks replaced pensions, leaving them with a certain abiding "jonesing" quality for the more prosperous days of the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
Yavin4
(37,182 posts)I was born in September 1964 which technically makes me a Boomer, but my life experience is more akin to GenXer. I came of age when there was a massive economic transformation from manufacturing to an IT-based economy. Everybody was trying to figure it out.
Deep State Witch
(12,717 posts)I'm late 1964. He's March of 1963. The only thing we remember about Vietnam was seeing the coverage on TV when we were kids. But yet, we're considered Boomers.
I prefer Gen X or Jones myself.
Freethinker65
(11,203 posts)Part of that is the low wages and lower savings rate combined with high expectations of many young buyers.
Anecdotally I have seen posts by young couples on social media for a "starter home" with demands of four bedrooms, at least 3 1/2 baths, newer appliances and mechanicals, newer windows and roof, finished basements, etc in established areas with good schools on a quiet street for under $350K. Many are currently still living with their parents as they spend money on cars, clothes, and vacations taking time to complain about how they cannot find a suitable "starter" house to move to.
Raftergirl
(1,856 posts)Ridiculous expectations.
We bought the worst house on our street and we’ve been in it for 32 years. Was able to eventually turn it into the home of our dreams. And it’s still only a 3 (small) bedroom 1 1/2 bath home.
Our first dishwasher was a hand me down from neighbors. And we had take out cabinets in our wee kitchen to put it in.
My 30 yr old son already owns two homes (one a 1 bedroom condo in Boston that he rents out and the other a 2 bedroom townhome in Salem.) Both were more than $350k ($375k and $410k respectively.) They are both modest properties.
We did not need to help him out with down payment, though we would have if he needed it.
onenote
(46,142 posts)Last year, HGTV was the 9th most watched network with about 1 million viewers in primetime. But when you look at viewership in the 18-49 demographic, it falls to the 17th most watched network, with under 200,000 viewers.
Raftergirl
(1,856 posts)
ismnotwasm
(42,674 posts)
Bayard
(29,693 posts)Got it cheaply 10 years ago when I was moving back from CA. We were able to buy an additional 2 acres next to us last year to maintain some privacy.
The house was basically a shell. Electricity and water, but that was about it. Over the past several years we have busted our butts on it, and its quite a comfortable little space for us now. One bedroom, one bathroom, one story. We've also built many outbuildings for animals, by ourselves. Mr. Bayard was an electrician in his past life--very handy.
A few years ago, both of his parents died unexpectedly, and left the 3 kids a tidy sum--just enough to pay off the mortgage, do more things around here, and have a chunk in the bank to supplement our social security. Hate the way we got the money, but its definitely saved our bacon. We had no other retirement funds. We will be here the rest of our lives. We're boomers.
I can't imagine how kids today can buy houses (sounding very old.) I know my niece and her military husband, first time buyers, in Colorado had to bid on 4 different properties before they finally landed one. That's nuts. And they both have good jobs, early 30's.
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)Those folks are buying anything that they can rent out and it disappears,forever, from the market. That is where young people's problems are going to be coming from, not us old folk.
I promise that when I die, sometimes in the next few years, I won't burn my home on the way out.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)Thanks, all my fellow Boomers
Deep State Witch
(12,717 posts)The Boomers are buying up houses to flip and use as investment properties. They can rent them out to Gen Z and Millennials.
Honestly, hubs and I are looking to downsize ourselves. But we have a few mitigating circumstances, like if we're going to stick around Maryland after my aunt finally kicks off. Although at this rate, the two of us and Aunt Lois might be fleeing to a different country if the Orange Turd gets in.
sakabatou
(46,149 posts)
Hope22
(4,746 posts)They have paid for kids educations, kids housing, kids cars, grandkids educations, grandkids emergency housing, grandkids cars and more. If they want a smaller house now, I say go for it!
happybird
(5,393 posts)are snapped up immediately by buyers with cash. Mostly flippers and Air BnB people, or those who sold their big house and are downsizing. Very few smaller houses ever come up for sale and real estate is waaaay overvalued. Hell, my concrete block house from 1969 with oil furnace is valued at close to $400,000. It’s absurd.
DenaliDemocrat
(1,777 posts)Not baby boomers.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(28,493 posts)What am I doing wrong?
Metaphorical
(2,634 posts)It's worth remembering in all of this that banks and real estate companies have also been buying up homes and either taking them off the market or otherwise controlling the prices. The 2008 bust was due largely to banks failing to divest themselves of overstocked portfolios fast enough when the market did turn, and it looks like the same thing is happening again now.