11mo ago

Boomers won’t part with their homes, and that’s a problem for young families

www.cnn.com Boomers won’t part with their homes, and that’s a problem for young families | CNN Business

Buying a family-sized home with three or more bedrooms used to be manageable for young people with children. But with home prices climbing faster than wages, mortgage rates still close to 23-year highs and a shortage of homes nationwide, many Millennials with kids can’t afford it. And Gen Z adults w...

Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are staying in their larger homes for longer, preferring to age in place and stay active in a neighborhood that’s familiar to them. And even if they sold, where would they go? There is a shortage of smaller homes in those neighborhoods.

As a result, empty-nest Baby Boomers own 28% of large homes — and Milliennials with kids own just 14%, according to a Redfin analysis released Tuesday. Gen Z families own just 0.3% of homes with three bedrooms or more.

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250 comments

Article makes it sound like an old people problem. It isn't. It's a systemic one. People can't afford houses.
- And they want the old people to just leave their homes when their kids move out? As if there aren't tons of other reasons to stay in your home.
  It's a weird article that's trying to put generations against each other.
  
  Not that weird. The corporate media has been pushing this narrative for a while. They realize that younger people don't respond to the old racism or anti-lgbtq. But "evil old boomers are stealing your house/money/whatever" seems to work like a charm. It's just another distraction.
  
  The actual solution is to build more and reject the idea that homes should be a monetary investment (because that requires limited supply, which requires that somebody who needs a home in an area can't get it in order to make demand drive the price up)
  
  It really isn’t the solution.
  I would totally agree with you if it weren’t for the fact that there is an abysmal amount of vacant homes.
  Investment companies buy up entire neighborhoods leaving them empty allowing them to jack prices up in the area for rentals.
  This has nothing to do with there being not enough homes. The issue is investment companies turning housing into a monopoly.
  Building more won’t do shit because investment firms will gobble those up too. New homes are mad expensive too so the only people affording them are rich people or investment firms.
  Remove Wall Street from housing and the problem is solved.
  
  Investment companies does make it worse, but they wouldn't be able to cause a crisis if homes were built in such volumes that they can't be investments. They're buying expecting value to go up. Build enough and that can't happen.
  
  Right, we had the same issue before investment companies got big, and before airBnB. They just made it worse and the jump in interest rates made houses suddenly even less affordable
  As someone who does have a house, I wanted to start pre-paying my mortgage so that’s not hanging over my head so long. However with interest rates as low as they are, I’m much better off even just dropping but I to a savings account …. Anyhow, my point is that even if I wanted to sell, such as to downsize, that’s a bad deal given interest rates
- You don't understand. You must be angry at old people, not rich people or companies.
  
  Well, try to build high density housing near them and see what happens.
  
  "Rich people hate this one simple trick"
- my older in-laws are hoarding all the wealth after grandmother passed and they finagled their way into the inheritance they were not in and inherited the vehicles as well
  now we have ask them for anything if we get in a bad way and my side of the family did something similar
  older people do be hoarding
- with home prices climbing faster than wages, mortgage rates still close to 23-year highs and a shortage of homes nationwide, many Millennials with kids can’t afford it. There is a shortage of smaller homes in those neighborhoods.
  The article mentions both cost and availability as factors.

250 comments