Boomers can’t downsize

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical boomers. Want top dollar for the home they're in now, but want to land somewhere nice and cheap.

Typical GenZ/X/Y - want to land somewhere nice, but it also has to be cheap.

Most of the houses boomers are selling are really not all that nice. Trying to pass a 20 year old kitchen reno as a recent update, for example. But options are limited right now so it’s more about finding something acceptable within a reasonable budget (“cheap” was in 2008, nothing is cheap anymore).

A 20 year old kitchen Reno? Try a kitchen that hasn’t been touched since 1994 + wallpaper borders in every bedroom and bathroom!

Yep. We bought our current house and renovated it top to bottom because the boomers who lived here before either hadn’t touched things in 25 years, or did crappy DIY repairs that made things worse.

that is what every generation does. My parents did it when they bought their house in 1970. DH and I did it after we bought our house in 2001. I am sure my kids will do it when they buy their houses. Not a boomer (or millennial) amongst us.

[Anonymous]

Do most people downsize to high end vacation properties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my last one is leaving for college soon. My house big. But close in, no HOA fee and I have landscaping.

I am not from DC so I have zero relatives and only work friends. So retiring elsewhere is east.

However, doing bath with wife she is like why not just buy a small one bedroom in an older condo with no amenities and low common charges by beach and just snowbird.

My friends 825k house the HOA mixed in a few small condo units for “working class” when built but low snow birds are buying.

So if I and other boomers do this now we are taking up two homes.

They really need to RTO everyone to get remote people out of Florida etc so retirees can move there again.

Haha, that's hysterical! You want to FORCE people to return to the office to free up more housing in Florida for retirees? what is wrong with you? everything isn't always about you. It's fine that mom now has a long commute and doesn't get to see her kids, cuz Grandma needs her condo. Huh?

Talking like the heartless boomers that they are. There won’t be enough carers to care for them in old age and it doesn’t bother me one bit. They’ve been the most selfish hoggers, turning the world upside down consuming everything that crosses their path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think current elevated home prices are sustainable.

There is no way we could even afford to buy in our own neighborhood where we purchased in 2016. If some of our elderly neighbors sold, they still could barely buy a decent condo in this general area for the same price.

A bigger issue are the houses standing empty because the heirs don't want to sell them, for whatever reason.

If they’re near an urban area with limitations on multi family housing, the prices will absolutely be maintained. My city has increased in population by hundreds of thousands of people since the pandemic began. Commutes are long and challenging even with many people still doing wfh. Heirs (and in the case of my city, overseas owners) will absolutely hold on to an asset that is stable or increasing in value. That’s the entire problem of housing as an investment vs. a place to live.

Now if you’re talking a townhouse an hours’ commute away, that’s different.

We're in the outer DC metro in a low performing school district. Prices plummeted after the housing bubble with all the foreclosures, which is why we were able to buy our current sfh a few years later. There is nothing particularly special about our neighborhood, other than some houses still sell for under 600k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents sold their 4/3.5 house in the DC suburbs, and moved to SC. My mom says she “downsized” because she now has 3/3.5, but after all the “must have” upgrades, she only saved about $40k in purchase price. In rural SC. It blows my mind.

This. All the places that used to be cheap are not. In fact, they’re relatively expensive when you account for the things you lose by leaving a big city. I was willing to move to places I don’t even like that much for low COL and good weather. Similar COL? What’s the point?

+1 Not a boomer, but I feel bad for the OP and posters like this. Now they have to come up with a different retirement plan, and moving might not even make sense anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical boomers. Want top dollar for the home they're in now, but want to land somewhere nice and cheap.

Do you want to pay way more to down size? Yay... let's pay more for less space!!!! Said nobody.

I'm not a boomer but I would absolutely not pay these prices right now, anywhere.

+1 This is the problem. By the time they account for transactions costs, higher housing costs for the new home - especially in traditional retirement locales like FL, and giving up whatever property tax rate they have, they're not "downsizing" so much as giving up a larger home for a smaller one at the same price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of boomers aging in place in these 2 story 3500 square foot homes and it doesn’t seem very economical to me—Paying taxes on, cooling, heating, and cleaning all that? Some rooms even sit empty.

My mom is one of those. She is willing to downsize but only if it’s a newish, SFH with a yard large enough for a garden. No shared walls. And it can’t be too big.

Houses new enough to require less maintenance than her current house either aren’t SFH or they are bigger than her current 3000 sq ft house but crammed onto a 5000 sq ft lot with neighbors 5’ away and barely any yard. She has deemed that unacceptable, and also refuses the idea of a condo, apartment, or row house because she says she should not have to listen to neighbors after 50 years of sfh living.

People aren’t really building cute new cottages on medium-size lots these days so she’s stuck.

55+ communities that have little sfh. Lots of those communities popping up, so they are new builds.

I can't be the only Gen Xer who abhors those types of place. We are just a few years from being eligible, and there's no way. They are at the absolute bottom of the housing list.

I absolutely agree. I also feel like the developers of those neighborhoods aren't really considering the upcoming demographics. Gen X is the smallest generation in existence. Not only will a majority of us hate such communities, but there won't be enough of any of us to fill them. I keep seeing Gen X sites talking about turning old malls into housing, complete with Orange Julius and Pizza Huts. I'd be much more game for that rather than some old gray-haired place to hide us.

Also, I must comment that I love the irony of this thread. Boomers complaining while THEIR OWN CHILDREN, the Millennials, screech at them about being selfish and gobbling up housing. It's pretty entertaining from afar.

[Anonymous]

On my block one older couple lives in a large home. No mortgage. They bought it in 1975.

Last summer they did a big renovation. New roof, pointing, added master bedroom suite and bath main level. Mind you they are 80.

Their house is 6,600 sf total counting basement and upstairs.

Given no mortgage and no HOA and property taxes or $1,200 a month he said I can’t even rent a run down studio apt in a bad neighborhood for $1,200 a month.

They just stay in main level 2,200sf and upstairs is for when they get feeble and need a caregiver or kids or grandkids stay over.

Their house is worth 1.7 million and they paid $150,000. They have to pay taxes on a million dollar gain to move, plus closings costs ti buy and sell. They just will stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of boomers aging in place in these 2 story 3500 square foot homes and it doesn’t seem very economical to me—Paying taxes on, cooling, heating, and cleaning all that? Some rooms even sit empty.

My mom is one of those. She is willing to downsize but only if it’s a newish, SFH with a yard large enough for a garden. No shared walls. And it can’t be too big.

Houses new enough to require less maintenance than her current house either aren’t SFH or they are bigger than her current 3000 sq ft house but crammed onto a 5000 sq ft lot with neighbors 5’ away and barely any yard. She has deemed that unacceptable, and also refuses the idea of a condo, apartment, or row house because she says she should not have to listen to neighbors after 50 years of sfh living.

People aren’t really building cute new cottages on medium-size lots these days so she’s stuck.

55+ communities that have little sfh. Lots of those communities popping up, so they are new builds.

I can't be the only Gen Xer who abhors those types of place. We are just a few years from being eligible, and there's no way. They are at the absolute bottom of the housing list.

I absolutely agree. I also feel like the developers of those neighborhoods aren't really considering the upcoming demographics. Gen X is the smallest generation in existence. Not only will a majority of us hate such communities, but there won't be enough of any of us to fill them. I keep seeing Gen X sites talking about turning old malls into housing, complete with Orange Julius and Pizza Huts. I'd be much more game for that rather than some old gray-haired place to hide us.

Also, I must comment that I love the irony of this thread. Boomers complaining while THEIR OWN CHILDREN, the Millennials, screech at them about being selfish and gobbling up housing. It's pretty entertaining from afar.

What's funniest is the millennials will be coming into a massive amount of wealth transferred to them, for nothing more than existing, from their hated boomer parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my last one is leaving for college soon. My house big. But close in, no HOA fee and I have landscaping.

I am not from DC so I have zero relatives and only work friends. So retiring elsewhere is east.

However, doing bath with wife she is like why not just buy a small one bedroom in an older condo with no amenities and low common charges by beach and just snowbird.

My friends 825k house the HOA mixed in a few small condo units for “working class” when built but low snow birds are buying.

So if I and other boomers do this now we are taking up two homes.

They really need to RTO everyone to get remote people out of Florida etc so retirees can move there again.

Haha, that's hysterical! You want to FORCE people to return to the office to free up more housing in Florida for retirees? what is wrong with you? everything isn't always about you. It's fine that mom now has a long commute and doesn't get to see her kids, cuz Grandma needs her condo. Huh?

Talking like the heartless boomers that they are. There won’t be enough carers to care for them in old age and it doesn’t bother me one bit. They’ve been the most selfish hoggers, turning the world upside down consuming everything that crosses their path.

Kids today consume so much more than boomer kids did. We had one car, no a/c, rode our bikes everywhere, hardly ever got a ride, ate out maybe 10 times a year, no cable, no WiFi, no smart phones. Used exponentially less energy or fossil fuels.

This generation uses so much more than they produce.

[Anonymous]

OP, don't worry. Housing crash is coming. Wait for it.

[Anonymous]

OP is going to waste their retirement years worrying about penny-pinching and market-timing, rather than just moving to the place where they want to enjoy their remaining years. Not what I would do, but to each their own.

[Anonymous]

My ILs live in a 5 bedroom house, double mortgaged. They can't even walk up the stairs but still don't want to move

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of boomers aging in place in these 2 story 3500 square foot homes and it doesn’t seem very economical to me—Paying taxes on, cooling, heating, and cleaning all that? Some rooms even sit empty.

My mom is one of those. She is willing to downsize but only if it’s a newish, SFH with a yard large enough for a garden. No shared walls. And it can’t be too big.

Houses new enough to require less maintenance than her current house either aren’t SFH or they are bigger than her current 3000 sq ft house but crammed onto a 5000 sq ft lot with neighbors 5’ away and barely any yard. She has deemed that unacceptable, and also refuses the idea of a condo, apartment, or row house because she says she should not have to listen to neighbors after 50 years of sfh living.

People aren’t really building cute new cottages on medium-size lots these days so she’s stuck.

55+ communities that have little sfh. Lots of those communities popping up, so they are new builds.

I can't be the only Gen Xer who abhors those types of place. We are just a few years from being eligible, and there's no way. They are at the absolute bottom of the housing list.

I absolutely agree. I also feel like the developers of those neighborhoods aren't really considering the upcoming demographics. Gen X is the smallest generation in existence. Not only will a majority of us hate such communities, but there won't be enough of any of us to fill them. I keep seeing Gen X sites talking about turning old malls into housing, complete with Orange Julius and Pizza Huts. I'd be much more game for that rather than some old gray-haired place to hide us.

Also, I must comment that I love the irony of this thread. Boomers complaining while THEIR OWN CHILDREN, the Millennials, screech at them about being selfish and gobbling up housing. It's pretty entertaining from afar.

What's funniest is the millennials will be coming into a massive amount of wealth transferred to them, for nothing more than existing, from their hated boomer parents.

Hopefully the currency will collapse and they get nothing but paper. Then they will be forced to produce whatever they consume or maybe get government cheese for life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my last one is leaving for college soon. My house big. But close in, no HOA fee and I have landscaping.

I am not from DC so I have zero relatives and only work friends. So retiring elsewhere is east.

However, doing bath with wife she is like why not just buy a small one bedroom in an older condo with no amenities and low common charges by beach and just snowbird.

My friends 825k house the HOA mixed in a few small condo units for “working class” when built but low snow birds are buying.

So if I and other boomers do this now we are taking up two homes.

They really need to RTO everyone to get remote people out of Florida etc so retirees can move there again.

Haha, that's hysterical! You want to FORCE people to return to the office to free up more housing in Florida for retirees? what is wrong with you? everything isn't always about you. It's fine that mom now has a long commute and doesn't get to see her kids, cuz Grandma needs her condo. Huh?

Talking like the heartless boomers that they are. There won’t be enough carers to care for them in old age and it doesn’t bother me one bit. They’ve been the most selfish hoggers, turning the world upside down consuming everything that crosses their path.

Kids today consume so much more than boomer kids did. We had one car, no a/c, rode our bikes everywhere, hardly ever got a ride, ate out maybe 10 times a year, no cable, no WiFi, no smart phones. Used exponentially less energy or fossil fuels.

This generation uses so much more than they produce.

They are following example that you set. Why don’t you give up your Wi-Fi, cell phone, etc first?