The median Boomer has a housing cost of $612. That includes taxes and insurance.

[Anonymous]

Holy. Sh#t.

This article was eye opening and sobering. And fully explains why Boomers are so disconnected from the economic struggles faced by their own children.

Other fun facts:
-“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.”

-“Boomers own half of all of the $32 trillion in home equity in the U.S.”


https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/baby-boomers-big-homes-real-estate-inventory-3a047cb6

[Anonymous]

If it was economically feasible for them to downsize, more would have been doing it. They face the same constraints the rest of us do if they try to downsize. Limited availability of small houses, hassle of selling / buying, and the price difference between their large “as is” sale and a small dwelling in same area doesn’t make financial sense for them. It’s the lack of housing options that keeps them in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it was economically feasible for them to downsize, more would have been doing it. They face the same constraints the rest of us do if they try to downsize. Limited availability of small houses, hassle of selling / buying, and the price difference between their large “as is” sale and a small dwelling in same area doesn’t make financial sense for them. It’s the lack of housing options that keeps them in place.

Oh they have options….they just don’t want to pay for it. Don’t want to pay capital gains on home sale. Don’t want to pay more for less square footage, despite being newly renovated or in a better location.

Boomers want Big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was economically feasible for them to downsize, more would have been doing it. They face the same constraints the rest of us do if they try to downsize. Limited availability of small houses, hassle of selling / buying, and the price difference between their large “as is” sale and a small dwelling in same area doesn’t make financial sense for them. It’s the lack of housing options that keeps them in place.

Oh they have options….they just don’t want to pay for it. Don’t want to pay capital gains on home sale. Don’t want to pay more for less square footage, despite being newly renovated or in a better location.

Boomers want Big.

You’re kind of reinforcing my point. It doesn’t make financial sense for them to do it.

[Anonymous]

Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know where those fictional people live where $612 includes taxes and insurance but it isn’t around here. I also don’t understand why it’s so difficult to process why people living on a fixed income with a paid off mortgage don’t want to leave their homes that they spent years paying for and enjoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

Every generation has something to be upset with the prior ones about, but also things to appreciate about them, no? Also, each generation has it's own unique challenges and makes it's own mistakes. Millennials are not Boomers, Gen X, Gen Z, or Gen Alpha. And in the years prior to the pandemic, most headlines on this topic noted that many Millennials didn't want Boomers' (outdated and nonurban) real estate:

Millennials don't want to buy baby boomers' sprawling, multi-bedroom homes, and it's creating a major problem in the real-estate market. Boomers are looking to downsize, but millennials aren't interested in their huge houses.
https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-big-houses-real-estate-market-problems-2019-3?op=1

Boomers, Millennials, and the McMansions No One Wants
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/boomers-millennials-and-the-mcmansions-no-one-wants/

Millennials don’t want the homes their parents worked hard to buy
https://genhq.com/millennials-dont-want-buy-baby-boomers-homes/

Millennials are making 3 key decisions that are wiping out the starter home — and it's changing what homeownership in America looks like
-The typical millennial is renting longer and buying later, surpassing the need for a starter home.
-A delay in homeownership gives millennials more time to build wealth, meaning that for some their first home is a million-dollar luxury home.
-Some rich urban millennials prefer to rent in the city and buy a vacation home instead of a primary residence.
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/millennials-wiping-out-starter-homes-real-estate-2019-4?op=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

I think this should be revised. It’s not that Millennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha won’t have the ability to build wealth; they will. But it will look much more like Old Europe - building wealth will be largely predicated upon by inheriting family wealth. We’ve already started to see a reversion to European norms with increased incidence of American adult children living in the homes of their aging parents. We are becoming the worst of Europe, minus the social safety net which acts as a pressure release valve.

The fact is that Boomers built broadbased wealth easily. I know so many dumb Boomers with zero common sense sitting on 7 figure net worth out of sheer happenstance. They just happened to born post WW2 in the United States, where the runway was cleared for their takeoff. Affordable college that was still funded by taxes, multiple periods of ultra low interest rates, housing prices that that were still a low multiple of median income, etc. And now? They are sitting on stacks of cash and majorly pissed off that they might have to pay capital gains while enjoying 5.25% risk free rates. Had they been born poor in India or Syria they wouldn’t have lasted more than a few weeks before getting themselves killed. That’s how lucky they are, but you’ll never hear them ever admit it particularly as they continue to pull the prosperity ladder up behind themselves.

Good job Boomers - you turned the U.S. into Old Europe all while pretending you were better than Europeans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

Every generation has something to be upset with the prior ones about, but also things to appreciate about them, no? Also, each generation has it's own unique challenges and makes it's own mistakes. Millennials are not Boomers, Gen X, Gen Z, or Gen Alpha. And in the years prior to the pandemic, most headlines on this topic noted that many Millennials didn't want Boomers' (outdated and nonurban) real estate:

Millennials don't want to buy baby boomers' sprawling, multi-bedroom homes, and it's creating a major problem in the real-estate market. Boomers are looking to downsize, but millennials aren't interested in their huge houses.
https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-vs-baby-boomers-big-houses-real-estate-market-problems-2019-3?op=1

Boomers, Millennials, and the McMansions No One Wants
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/boomers-millennials-and-the-mcmansions-no-one-wants/

Millennials don’t want the homes their parents worked hard to buy
https://genhq.com/millennials-dont-want-buy-baby-boomers-homes/

Millennials are making 3 key decisions that are wiping out the starter home — and it's changing what homeownership in America looks like
-The typical millennial is renting longer and buying later, surpassing the need for a starter home.
-A delay in homeownership gives millennials more time to build wealth, meaning that for some their first home is a million-dollar luxury home.
-Some rich urban millennials prefer to rent in the city and buy a vacation home instead of a primary residence.
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/millennials-wiping-out-starter-homes-real-estate-2019-4?op=1

lol those headlines are a nice spin to the real story:

Millennials can’t afford to buy those homes!

[Anonymous]

I disagree, but they have to hit a certain milestone to be motivated to move. For my Uncle it was his wife falling twice in their home. For my parents, it was cancer.

[Anonymous]

So much whining and blaming elders for their good luck.

So live in a small rented space and build wealth through other vehicles. Study the Silent Generation for pointers.

[Anonymous]

Not true between taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance. We own our house. Small crummy house in a meh area and it’s way more than that.

Why should they move? It’s their home. The issue is people getting into bidding wars and overpaying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop your whining and get a therapist to help you deal with your very transparent issues with your parents.

NP. My parents aren’t Boomers but I legitimately don’t see how people don’t understand why Millrennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha feel enraged that no matter how hard they work they will never have the ability to build wealth the way previous generations did.

They have the ability. Much of it is lifestyle houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know where those fictional people live where $612 includes taxes and insurance but it isn’t around here. I also don’t understand why it’s so difficult to process why people living on a fixed income with a paid off mortgage don’t want to leave their homes that they spent years paying for and enjoying.

Places like Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, upstate NY, etc. Aka, Flyover Country. They have very few natural disasters, home prices have been very low until the COVID years, and jurisdictions often have caps on property tax increases that leave Boomers paying only a fraction of the fair market value on taxes compared to young families that recently purchased.