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United States Businesses News

OK Boomer, Who's Going To Buy Your 21 Million Homes? (wsj.com) 422

By 2037, one quarter of the U.S. for-sale housing stock, or roughly 21 million homes will be vacated by seniors. That is more than twice the number of new properties built during a 10-year period that spanned the last housing bubble [the link may be paywalled]. From a report: Most of these homes will be concentrated in traditional retirement communities in Arizona and Florida, according to Zillow, or parts of the Rust Belt that have been losing population for decades. A more modest infusion of new housing is expected in pricey coastal neighborhoods of New York or San Francisco where younger Americans are still flocking in large numbers. On the face of it, this doesn't sound all bad. Dying homeowners have always needed to be replaced by younger ones and the U.S. has for a number of years suffered from a shortage of housing, a development that has dampened recent home sales activity and kept many millennials stuck in rentals.

But the buyers coming behind the baby boomers, the Gen Xers, are a smaller and more financially precarious generation with different preferences, posing a new kind of test for the housing market. One problem is that the bulk of the supply won't necessarily be in places where these new buyers want to live. Gen Xers and the younger millennials have shown thus far they would rather be in cities or suburbs in major metropolitan areas that offer strong Wi-Fi and plenty of shops and restaurants within walking distance -- like the Frisco suburbs of Dallas or the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. They have little interest in migrating to planned, age-restricted retirement enclaves in sunnier corners of the U.S. lined with golf courses, community centers and man-made lakes -- like The Villages, a community of 115,000 in central Florida. Innovations such as voice-recognition technology and ride-share drivers are also making it easier for older people to stay in their existing homes and eschew these retirement communities altogether.

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OK Boomer, Who's Going To Buy Your 21 Million Homes?

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  • Sounds like due to an over-supply of housing in undesirable (to potential buyers) areas, these houses will be selling at a discount.
    • We can bulldoze them and turn them into cemeteries. Win-win. Have you ever seen what they charge for plots?
    • Many of these homes are McMansions.
      Cost a fortune to heat, cool and maintain.

      Many existing homeowners prefer to just let things degrade to crap and then sell. (At least where I live)

      Many of these homes will just be abandoned a-la-2008-recession.

    • Re:Discount (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:05PM (#59457488) Homepage Journal

      Nice theory, but what happens is the bank winds up owning them, and then refusing to sell them for what the market will bear because that would bring down the value of all their other properties. Right now there are more vacant homes in this country than there are homeless people, but the banks won't sell them for affordable prices because it would cause a crash. A crash, mind you, which the banks have essentially engineered. And we will probably bail those shitlords out again.

      • Are banks exempt from property taxes in such a situation for some reason?
        • No.
          But, the bankers incentives are weird.
          Different groups are responsible for carrying and for selling.

          • Re: Taxes (Score:5, Informative)

            by NicknameUnavailable ( 4134147 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @02:48PM (#59458562)
            Yes. While they have to pay property taxes, they get to write off the depreciation of the home AND the lost revenue they would have had if they were to sell the home - which exceeds the property taxes. So while they aren't an income stream in themselves, they allow write-offs in their profit-making streams which exceed the value paid in taxes for holding them.
        • If this is a real conspiracy, then obviously the banks will pressure the local property tax valuations way down below the actual real estate values. Even in healthy cities, property tax valuations are semi-fictional and have little to do with market value.

          From what I've heard, it's not banks, etc, sitting on empty housing its housing getting turned into rentals by private equity. Empty houses are a liability -- they don't get maintained, they get broken into, stripped by tweakers, etc. Rentals pay for pr

      • When you say a crash the banks engineered -- keep in mind this was silent consent of Millennial consumers to overpay for housing the past decade. The banks enabled it with loans well in excess of a "fair market" value as they pumped the industry value. Both the banks and last decade of home buyers deserve a hard crash which makes homes affordable again. The consumer losses are self-inflicted by not holding out on buying homes until prices aligned with actual value and instead getting on the "dream house"
    • Re:Discount (Score:4, Informative)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @02:05PM (#59458296)

      Still a discount may be too much for the first generation to have a lower quality of life then its previous generation in a while.

      The problem is Boomers say they got there by their own will and grit... However most of them got there with help of the greatest generation, as they provided them with the resources to succeed.
      Winning WWII put America in a stance of extra power as its competitors (friendly and not) into a 20+ year rebuilding process after the war. This made America the largest non-bombed out economy. With factories running at full scale from the war effort, which were transitioned to the such a generation all coming back from war and having kids at the same time (Baby Boomers). This new found world wealth, combined with fiscal responsibility they had gotten from the great depression. Has made them save up and invest their money to their kids (Boomers). Giving them money to start their own businesses, go to college, and offering a family dynamic as a fallback plan if they failed.
      Boomers did work hard to get successful, but they didn't do it alone. Now GenX and Millennial are at the age where they are in the workforce. The Boomers are holding onto their wealth, and blaming the kids for being too lazy, where the Boomers won't share their wealth to their kids, Moving out of state away from where the kids work, and squandering their money on themselves. Leaving the current generation having to fight for every dollar. Also Boomer Bosses who got into their positions because the previous generation has succession planning in mind, where they molded talented individuals to one day take over the business. To creating a promotion gap between entry level workers and management. Which is difficult to cross.

  • Build less houses (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ryzilynt ( 3492885 )

    This sounds like a manufactured crisis.

    So you are telling me 21 million homes will be go up for sale in the next 20 years? So a million homes a year? How many homes go up for sale every year as it is? How many people are going to be coming of age that want to buy a home each year? How many people will be retiring each year and want to move to these communities.

    Yeah I know, baby boomer generation dwarves all others, but seriously people.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @11:48AM (#59457362)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by reanjr ( 588767 )

        You mean the racist boomers will finally feel the effects of white flight they caused? Great!

      • That all happened due to white flight not the government.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        (Note that this isn't a natural state of affairs: countries without ideological nutcases destroying their cities have wonderful beautiful livable cities, and the cities are coming back in the US too.)

        Which ideological nutcases did you have in mind; the ones who were soft on crime, which is what made the cities unlivable?

      • I would disagree. As the world becomes more virtually connected, there will be less need for concentrated "cities" and more opportunity to live in quiet, less congested places. Who wants to live in a 400 sq. ft. apartment in NY for some godawful amount of rent when you can live in a beautiful rural setting for a lot less money, work at home and order your shit from Amazon. There's also a difference between the 'burbs and rural locales. Suburbs exist so workers can live within a reasonable distance from

        • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Nope. It sounds idyllic, but it's not. First, cities are much more efficient per capita. There simply aren't the resources for a significant number of people to move to rural areas, or for any more to move to suburban areas. Second, lots of people like living in cities, for lots of reasons that don't involve work. Cities provide the density for lots of luxuries like restaurants, cultural events, etc.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        What abject idiocy. Yes, I'm sure all these nice houses in suburban Phoenix will just go to squatters one day because...reasons. They can't build houses fast enough around here and boomers aren't in a sudden buying frenzy. The answer, of course, is that people besides boomers want these houses so they will keep building them.

        Phoenix, CA, FL, etc.. are not NYC. The cities suck and everyone wants to live in the 'burbs regardless of your age demographic. The article is stupid and should feel bad.

      • You need to learn about a fellow named Robert Moses.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
        Much of the NYC decay in the 50s, 60s and 70s was almost directly caused by his work.

      • by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @06:34PM (#59459908) Homepage Journal
        Well, when you're young, you may be able to and want to put up with city life, being very urban and stacked on top of each other in tiny apartments like rats

        But you get older, have a family and then you want more room and better schools and more safety....the suburbs then start to become more attractive.

        Personally, I couldn't stand to live sharing walls with others....I like to have a driveway for my cars, yard to have my smoker, grills, etc....and area to home-brew, etc.

        I like to have a place large enough and when weather is nice to have friends over.

        I like to be able to turn up my stereo and not worry about annoying the neighbor sharing a wall.

        Hey, everyone should live how they want, but after awhile, especially those with families...those urban areas don't start to fit in as well with more adult lifestyles.

    • It also fails to account for how the economy will change. In another 20 years who can say how technology will have changed the economy. Right now a lot of people live to cities because that’s where many of the best job opportunities are it.

      Also if that trend were to continue cities will magnify a lot of the downsides that already exist. They keep refusing to build additional housing and increasing living costs will just fuel complaints from long term residents about gentrification and the like. Eve
    • A million boomer homes a year?

      That's probably not that far off. Boomers are reaching their life expectancy. Their population is going to begin to quickly decline.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @11:38AM (#59457284)
    We can now turn our attention towards burning out ageism with combative headlines.
    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @01:03PM (#59457838)
      it's the "I got mine, fuck you" attitude. It's the decades of slashing social programs that they benefited from (indirect housing subsidies, the G.I. Bill, massive State and Federal subsidies to colleges, social security, Union protection laws, etc, etc, etc). There's a name for that, "Pulling the ladder up behind you".

      Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z will stop being combative just as soon as the Boomers do. When the boomers show up to the polls and support Universal Healthcare for everyone (not just themselves), tuition free college (not just for themselves) and other helpful programs then we'll talk.
      • by thragnet ( 5502618 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @03:08PM (#59458710)

        Boomer here. You are smack on. I belong to the cohort that will be remembered as the lamest generation. We had the amazing social programs that you have enumerated, and pissed it all away. Except we pissed on you. Your anger is more than justified.

      • the G.I. Bill

        Has the GI Bill been slashed? The original GI Bill (that expired in 1956) was somewhat more generous in some areas than the programs that replaced it, but boomers are too young to have used that; it was for their parents who fought in WWII. AFAICT, the post-1956 GI Bill incarnations have only gotten more generous over time, as various little tweaks have been added.

        Of course, while many of the boomers were drafted and fought in Vietnam, military service was significantly less popular with my generation (

  • Ok, Millenial. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @11:38AM (#59457294)
    Can we get rid of this "OK, Boomer" thing? It has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. This is coming from a borderline-Millennial. (Born in 81, so some "standards" have me as Millennial, some put me in the Gen-X class.) If we're being fair, the "Snowflake" thing can go too.
    • by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @11:39AM (#59457302)
      Well, shit. Apparently I haven't had enough coffee yet. *OK, Millennial.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Born in 81, so some "standards" have me as Millennial, some put me in the Gen-X class.

      Wow, an actual real-live edge case. So tell me, are you capable of forming and adjusting your own opinions and beliefs? Because the rest of us are clearly the exact stereotypes of our "generations". I have never met anyone my age who wasn't exactly like me.

      /s ;)

      • Re:Ok, Millenial. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:01PM (#59457466) Homepage Journal

        He's probably smart enough to know that generations only share certain shared experiences and are simply more likely to have some limited number of similar attributes, rather than assuming they are all exactly the same.

        This disingenuous argument keeps coming up. Stop it please.

      • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        So tell me, are you capable of forming and adjusting your own opinions and beliefs? Because the rest of us are clearly the exact stereotypes of our "generations". I have never met anyone my age who wasn't exactly like me.

        While I understand and appreciate your sarcasm (honestly), there certainly ARE reasons behind stereotypes. The only reason I put the reference in my comment was to ward off any "OK, boomer" responses by pointing out that I'm not a Boomer. (And I refuse to identify as a Millennial, because of the stereotypes.)

    • Re:Ok, Millenial. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:04PM (#59457484)

      Same. I'm at the same level (also born in 81), and OK Boomer is just annoying because the comeback is basically "I don't care about your arguments and won't refute any specific points - you're just wrong because you're old.".

      • Someone once said "Don't trust anyone over 30". The guy is now 80 and is an environmentalist.

      • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        100% agree. It's the exact same reason I hate the "Snowflake" thing. "You're too young to know shit about shit, so therefore your opinion is invalid."
      • Re:Ok, Millenial. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:51PM (#59457762)

        That's the thing: For many years... at least two decades that I can recall... the boomers who held, and still hold, the reins of political and economic power have cavalierly dismissed every concern, complaint, and argument of first genX, then the millennials, and now genZ.

        Preferred the '90s economy the way it was before the 2001 recession? "Shut up X-er. Clinton got a blowjob, and Gore was his VP!" Don't want endless war in the Middle East? "Shut up X-er. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists!" Angry at the bankers who caused the 2007 recession and want to see them punished? "Shut up X-er/millennial. They're too big to fail!" Jobs hard to come by? "Shut up X-er/millennial. Just learn a trade like I did!" Factory jobs nonexistent? "Shut up X-er/millennial. Just go to college like your mother did!" College unaffordable due to tuition inflation? "Shut up millennial. Just get a loan!" Crushed by student loan debt? "Shut up millennial/Z-er. You were stupid to take out loans in the first place!" Can't afford a house due to boomer NIMBY-ism driving up prices? "Shut up X-er/millennial/Z-er. Just skip the avocado toast and you'll be able to save enough to afford one!" Concerned about the way climate change is going to affect the world we, and our children, are going to have to live in after the boomers are gone? "Shut up X-er/millennial/Z-er. 'Climate change' is nothing more than a hoax made up by China to hurt our economy!"

        For all these years, the boomers have taken the attitude of: "I've got mine. Screw everyone who comes after me." And when, in any way, challenged, questioned, or asked to consider those who come after them; their own comeback is basically "I don't care about your arguments and won't refute any specific points - you're just wrong because you're young.".

        "OK Boomer" is just shorthand for something more like: "You don't care or listen. You've never cared or listened. Given your track record, I've no reason to believe you ever WILL care or listen. It is proven to be wholly unproductive to engage with you. So, I'm done. Bye Felicia." Efficiency!

        • Re:Ok, Millenial. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Ryzilynt ( 3492885 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @01:16PM (#59457928)

          That's the thing: For many years... at least two decades that I can recall... the boomers who held, and still hold, the reins of political and economic power have cavalierly dismissed every concern, complaint, and argument of first genX, then the millennials, and now genZ.

          Preferred the '90s economy the way it was before the 2001 recession? "Shut up X-er. Clinton got a blowjob, and Gore was his VP!" Don't want endless war in the Middle East? "Shut up X-er. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists!" Angry at the bankers who caused the 2007 recession and want to see them punished? "Shut up X-er/millennial. They're too big to fail!" Jobs hard to come by? "Shut up X-er/millennial. Just learn a trade like I did!" Factory jobs nonexistent? "Shut up X-er/millennial. Just go to college like your mother did!" College unaffordable due to tuition inflation? "Shut up millennial. Just get a loan!" Crushed by student loan debt? "Shut up millennial/Z-er. You were stupid to take out loans in the first place!" Can't afford a house due to boomer NIMBY-ism driving up prices? "Shut up X-er/millennial/Z-er. Just skip the avocado toast and you'll be able to save enough to afford one!" Concerned about the way climate change is going to affect the world we, and our children, are going to have to live in after the boomers are gone? "Shut up X-er/millennial/Z-er. 'Climate change' is nothing more than a hoax made up by China to hurt our economy!"

          For all these years, the boomers have taken the attitude of: "I've got mine. Screw everyone who comes after me." And when, in any way, challenged, questioned, or asked to consider those who come after them; their own comeback is basically "I don't care about your arguments and won't refute any specific points - you're just wrong because you're young.".

          "OK Boomer" is just shorthand for something more like: "You don't care or listen. You've never cared or listened. Given your track record, I've no reason to believe you ever WILL care or listen. It is proven to be wholly unproductive to engage with you. So, I'm done. Bye Felicia." Efficiency!

          While i completely agree with almost your entire post, I just have to point out that I have only ever heard "ok boomer" used in a derogatory way to insult someone as old and out of touch, but never in a deep and meaningful context.

          like :

          All I need is my flip phone and i'll be happy ----> ok boomer

          Never:

          I don't give a fuck about climate change because guess what? i won't be here for it anyway -----> ok boomer

          I'd actually prefer it was used more in the later context, but it never is.

        • Re:Ok, Millenial. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @01:20PM (#59457956) Journal

          For all these years, the boomers have taken the attitude of: "I've got mine. Screw everyone who comes after me."

          To be honest, that's more of a Republican attitude than a boomer attitude.

          Yeah yeah go ahead and down-vote me to oblivion but we all fuckin know it's true.

        • The "Ok Boomers" meme upsets them most because it refuses to give them the one thing they can't hoard on their own: Respect from younger generations.

          They grew up respecting the Silent and Greatest generations and we had drilled into our heads "Respect your elders." Which was a good rubric when you're 10 or 15, but now that millenials are almost 40 we're looking around asking "Why do they deserve our respect?"

          GenX, Millenials and now Zoomers are having the exact same circular arguments with Boomers that we'v

        • Oh, so just now you're noticing Boomers are entitled, narcissist, hypocrites?

          -GenX

      • "I don't care about your arguments and won't refute any specific points - you're just wrong because you're old.".

        No. It's "I've tried to have an adult conversation with you for 20 years and you have refused to listen to my specific points so I'm giving up arguing with you."

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      The second the I saw "Ok, Boomer" the article lost all validity to me. Sorry, but I cannot take someone serious that uses the term Boomer completely out of it's defined meaning because it's "popular" with the kids. It's neither edgy, nor cool. It's not even accurate and is a failed attempt to disparage an older demographic.
    • Can we get rid of this "OK, Boomer" thing? It has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. This is coming from a borderline-Millennial.

      It's "Let's you and him fight!" - the media and the rich doing a divide-and-conquer between different parts of their opposition.

      They've oppressed and looted the boomers all their lives. Now they want the generations coming into milking-and-shearing age to blame their previous victims for their suffering while they are in turn oppressed and looted, and the inconvenient

  • People change (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ardmhacha ( 192482 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @11:38AM (#59457296)

    " They have little interest in migrating to planned, age-restricted retirement enclaves in sunnier corners of the U.S. lined with golf courses, community centers and man-made lakes"

    At the moment

    When they are 65 and those houses are selling at rock bottom prices they may change their minds.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jpschaaf ( 313847 )

      Agreed. Markets solve these problems.

      • Re:People change (Score:4, Insightful)

        by whitelabrat ( 469237 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:39PM (#59457708)

        Gen X'er here. I see this as a win for me. Good thing too, because I don't expect any social security worth anything to be around by the time I retire. I'll need a cheap place to live.

        But yeah, we're living in a housing bubble right now, along with all the other bubbles that that will pop on us and the following generations.

        • by dmatos ( 232892 )

          Unfortunately, it's already working very much against you. You're in the prime earning years of your life, but high housing costs are gobbling up your fortune, making it more difficult for you to amass savings on which to retire.

          If you _do_ happen to own any property by the time the housing bubble bursts, suddenly your net worth is going to drop precipitously, and you may even have trouble servicing the now-underwater loans that allowed you to acquire that property.

          Your odds of any inheritance being worth

    • Convert the community centers to remote working facilities and the golf courses to off-leash dog parks. Millennials will be begging to move in.
    • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      At the moment

      That was what I was thinking. Of course a 40 year old doesn't want to retire in some village on a golf course somewhere warm. But I bet when they start turning 60 their tune will probably change. They'll just bulldoze the golf course and build whatever entertainment they want.

      • They'll just bulldoze the golf course and build whatever entertainment they want.

        I don't think that'll require much bulldozing . . .

        • by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          No, but it would be immensely satisfying. Just the concept of someone looking at a patch of desert and thinking "You know what would be a great idea to put in an area that doesn't support grass growth? A shit load of grass!" infuriates me.
    • by ibpooks ( 127372 )

      Of course they don't -- they're ~35 at the oldest in the peaks of their lives, physical fitness and health. As they age, just like every other generation, they will want a different kind of lifestyle. It might not be the same as what the elderly of today want, but it certainly will be different than what they want now.

    • Who doesn't want to live in a house with a private dock on a crystal clear man-made (and stocked) lake. Near a gym, tennis courts, golf courses, basketball courts, hiking trails, and biking trails where it never snows. Especially if it's going for rock bottom prices, who doesn't need a winter home some where nice.

      • People actually believe all boomers live like this? That's the result of Hollywood and unrealistic TV commercials that show some middle class guy buying his wife a Lexus for Christmas.

    • by barakn ( 641218 )

      Climate change will likely leave popular retirement destinations like Florida and Phoenix unbearably hot during the summer months. At best these homes will be populate semi-annually.

      • In Florida, most of these areas will be abandoned by then. Current forecasts show much of Florida going underwater, or at least with enough sea flooding to destroy the current "fresh water marshes" and convert them into brackish dead zones. We've already lost almost half of the original Everglades; the aquifers are already drying up. In 40 years Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach...will most likely be uninhabitable and permanently flooded.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      A lot of Gen X and Millennials only get on the housing ladder by first inheriting property or wealth from their grandparents' generation. That works for now but their kids won't be able to rely on the same inheritance because their boomer grandparents are spending it all on their retirements.

      Those retirement enclaves are not free. And then you have healthcare costs. "Move to where the work is" they said, which was great but now your kids are too far way to look after you themselves and have to pay someone e

    • I think this is more true than people think.

      The Villages is a crazy place and I think the people behind are smarter than they are given credit.

      For one, it's a totally planned community. It's built around not driving cars -- everyone drives golf carts everywhere, even people who don't play golf, and you can get to pretty much any business or service you want with your golf cart. Each phase is kind of built around its own "town square" which concentrates the businesses and a public square used for public ev

  • How about replacing "may" with 'is"?
  • My in-laws live in the villages. It's a great idea that unfortunately is way overcrowded now. Truth is most seniors want these kinds of environments where they have friends with common interests and it's warm, safe and clean. The fact that the villages has one of the highest STD rates in the country means today's seniors aren't just sitting around knitting. What I think is on it's way out are the old school retirement country clubs with dress codes and a self-important, homogeneous membership.

  • Then turn the lights out.

    Reset era like Tyler Durden wanted.

  • In 2037, this early Gen-Xer turns 67 and I'll be very happy to buy a cheap retirement home in Florida (as long as it isn't underwater). With any luck, I'll have already been in Florida for a number of years. ;)

    - Necron69

  • The Chinese.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Gen Xers and the younger millennials have shown thus far they would rather be in cities or suburbs in major metropolitan areas that offer strong Wi-Fi and plenty of shops and restaurants within walking distance -- like the Frisco suburbs of Dallas or the Capitol ill neighborhood of Seattle.

    I'm sure the reason nobody wants to live in Southwest Bumblefuck is lack of Wi-Fi, and not the lack of business/employment opportunities...
    =Smidge=

  • If only there was something like a gentle age progression. Millenials have a while to go before they retire and by then they will have different priorities. Who is going to buy the retirement houses as the occupants dies? New retirees of course. They might not WANT to live in a specific place but if thats where the houses are.
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:03PM (#59457476)
    Like Gen X and the Millennials are picking where they live. They're not. They're going where the work is. When my kid graduates next year they'll be off to wherever they can get a residency. That might be a small City, it might be Denver, Colorado. No telling, but it will come down to where the work is.
  • I forget who but someone said that about New York. Those retirement communities will just be given back to the wilderness. You can't live where there's no jobs unless you're very well off, and only the boomers had that kind of money
  • Wait when did that happen. Last I checked pretty much 20 year olds may like the cities but anybody older than that avoids the cities like crazy because of the poor schools, terrible commute, mediocre public transit, and over priced properties. Wasnâ(TM)t there a report to that fact about GenXâ(TM)er preferring suburbs?
  • I've always wondered what's going to happen with all those active adult/55+ communities when the owners all die out and their kids cant afford, or dont want to, live in those houses. Those things are just a waste of housing and why it's so much harder to find entry level housing in the US.

  • Boomers had big families that come with times of prosperity, no one is buying those homes they are inheriting them. Whether the children decide to sell is on them and how much dept those aging parents had incurred.

    And if new housing stagnates due to lack of demand, good, when my family moved here in 1980 it was mostly farmland or wooded acres. Since then its all new overpriced housing on one or two acre lots, a new school expansion, and let's just say the deer have nowhere to hide so everything gets eate
  • Gen Xers and the younger millennials [..] have little interest in migrating to planned, age-restricted retirement enclaves in sunnier corners of the U.S. lined with golf courses, community centers and man-made lakes

    Neither did the baby boomers when they were that age. It's almost as if your interests and needs might change as you approach retirement age. My mom loved walking around SF and Berkeley... until she had hip surgery...

  • I've been some this for years, the single best affordable housing plan is just wait until boomers die. Boomers are reaching their life expectancy and will quickly begin to kick the bucket with the same mass decline as they emerged after WWII.

    So, if you want a cheap house, just wait 5 years.

  • She’ll be inheriting our house.

    Which is probably good, since there’s no way she could otherwise afford to buy a home.

  • by Hentai007 ( 188457 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @12:32PM (#59457660)

    Oversupply does not seem to be an issue down here.

    A 1200 sq ft 3/2 way out in the suburbs 2 hours from downtown costs around 650k currently. And will sell within a day of being listed.

  • The math doesn't add up to claim that most of 21 million homes are going to be in retirement communities. Even if you assume 2 people per household That's 42 million people. The proverbial retirement states have populations of:

    Florida - 21 million
    Arizona - 7 million
    Throw in Texas and you've got
    Texas - 29 million

    That's your total population, kids, major cities, the whole works. The idea that the majority of those homes are in retirement communities like Sun City is absurd. While there likely are indeed 21 mi

  • by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @01:17PM (#59457932) Journal
    Nah, I think I'll keep it and rent it to you, so you end up building no wealth but continue to fund my retirement ad infinitum...
  • Reminds me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @01:24PM (#59457984) Journal

    Reminds me of the cartoon that shows a tattered guy sitting in the smoking rubble of the world, explaining what happened to some small children, "Yes, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

God help those who do not help themselves. -- Wilson Mizner

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