Boomers own 38% of America’s homes—but more than half never plan to sell

Homebuyers hoping for🗹 a flood of homes to hit the market from aging baby boomers migh🐻t be disappointed by the results of a new survey.

Among boomers who own homes, 54% say they never plan to sell the house they live in, acco𒊎rding to a poll from .

Now in th♌e age range of 🉐60 to 78, boomers account for 21% of the US population, yet they own 38% of the country’s homes, according to Freddie Mac data from 2022.

Their disproportionate hold over the housing♔ market is understandable since ಞhomeownership rates tend to rise with age, up to a certain point.

Historically, those rates begin to decline at age 75 as homeowners begin downsizing, with many eventually movin🃏g in with family or to assisted-living facilities.

But most boomers, it seems, have no int🦄erest in ♕downsizing as they age.

That’s despite the fact that nearlꦯy two-thirds of boomers who own homes said they 🐷expect to profit more than $100,000 if they sell their home, while 40% expect to clear $200,000 or more.

Explaining their reluctance to sell before they die, more than three-qua♊rters of boomer homeowners say owning a home is the primary reason they’re financially secure.

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And nearly half said they ☂would consider themselves failures if they didn’t own a home.

If 🎉the boomers are to be believed, their reluctance to sell their homes could reverberate through the housing market for years to come.

Constraints on the supply of homes for sale have been a major issue in t💎he US housing market, sending home prices to a new record high over the summer.

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The supply of homes for sale at the end of July was 1.33 million units, which equa🌱ls a four-month supply at the current sales pace, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Although that’༺s up 20% from a year ago, it remains well below the six-month supply that economi🦹sts say represents a balanced market.

“Any additional pinch on the supply of existing homes that results from older generations holding on to them for longer would be unwelcome news,” says  senior economist Joel Bernerღ. “New-home supply, on the other hand, would make up a larger share of the for-sale market in this scenario and buyers may find more affordable new builds.”

The survey also found that just 47% of boomers said they had required a double income▨ to purchase their home, a state Berner cal🍸led “striking.”

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Half of boomers who have owned a home said they had bought their 🅠first one for $75,000 or less, while almost two-thirds (64%) paid less than $100,000, the survey found. And only 6% of𝐆 boomer homeowners said their  when buying their first place was that homes were too expensive.

While those figures don’t account for inflation and rising wages, they paint a picture of a generation tha꧒t faced fewer hurdles to hoꦉmeownership than young buyers do today, as high home prices, elevated mortgage rates, and limited supply all combine to make conditions difficult for first-time buyers.

“The financial environment that younger generations are facing as first-time homebuyers is vastly dif𓆉ferent than what their parents and grandparents faced,” says Berner. “However, it’s unclear if 54% of a generation of homeowners reporting that they’ll live in their home until they die will have a meaningful impact on existing-home supply. Regardless of the severity of this specific challenge, home prices relative to income are a major hurdle for young families.”

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Despite this, a who⭕pping 42% of boomers surveyed said they believe younger generations have an easier time than they did buying a home in their 20s.

In their defense, for a period of years in the late 1970s and early🌌 ’80s, surging home prices and mortgage rates in the high teens did combine to create the worst homebuying conditions on record, just as many boomers were i𓂃n their late 20s and early 30s.

In that case, 🐽however, conditions improved significantly after a few years and supply was not a major constraint for young homebuyers. It’s unclear whether a similar resolution is in the cards for the young first-time buyers of today.