Baby Boomers Keep The Housing Market Tight

Baby boomers bought up many of the big homes across the U.S. when they were raising their families. Now they’re staying put, even though their kids are all grown up.

Boomers are on top in a housing market where tight inventory, higher interest rates and steep prices are making homeownership less affordable for the average family. Many of these older homeowners paid off their mortgages on properties that have appreciated tremendously in value.

Some are happy with their big houses. Others would like to downsize, but are deterred by the same high costs that are restraining other prospective buyers on lower rungs of the housing economy. Many are working longer or planning on an active retirement, and are in no rush to move to a retirement community. About 28% of all U.S. homes with three or more bedrooms are owned by people between the ages of 60 and 78 living by themselves or with another adult, according to a Redfin analysis of 2022 census data. Millennials living with children own just 14% of these bigger homes. A recent Fannie Mae survey found that most Americans 60 and older don’t intend to ever move.

Just a decade earlier, empty-nesters in the silent generation, who at the time were about 67 to 84, owned 16% of homes with three or more bedrooms. Meanwhile, members of Generation X with kids, who were 32 to 47, owned 19% of those large homes, Redfin found.

Boomers own half of all of the $32 trillion in home equity in the U.S., according to a Redfin analysis of Federal Reserve data.

For years, some have predicted that boomers…   would start selling off their big houses en masse, flooding the market with properties. Instead, many aren’t budging, similar to younger homeowners who don’t want to give up their low-rate mortgages.

The problems, though, are deeper than boomers not moving.

Home-building activity plummeted during the housing crisis and remained depressed for years, contributing to a historic decline in the construction of new homes and a housing shortage. A rapid run-up in interest rates over the past two years sent mortgage rates soaring.

And older homeowners downsizing in droves wouldn’t actually solve the overarching issue that there are not enough homes on the market. Instead, it would likely lead to more competition for smaller homes.

The state of the housing market has left people on all ends of the housing spectrum unhappy. Renters can’t buy first homes, homeowners can’t trade up and older homeowners are disappointed their adult children can’t afford to live nearby. That’s contributing to gloomy feelings about the economy at a time when many of the typical metrics, like unemployment, indicate that the U.S. is going strong.

Mortgage rates, after falling late last year, are creeping back toward 7%, which promises to keep some would-be homeowners from being able to buy. Hotter-than-expected inflation data released Wednesday will likely prevent the Fed from cutting rates any time soon, which means mortgage rates will stay high, too.