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Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

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Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#12

Post by maxsilver »

mnm1 wrote: post #4

"Many homeowners are holding off on listing their homes for sale because they want to avoid entering a competitive buyer's market, further tightening inventory." I don't understand this. What's the advantage of holding off when you have multiple people willing to bid on your house, including above asking?

> What's the advantage of holding off when you have multiple people willing to bid on your house, including above asking?

Most people still have to live somewhere. If a market is so hot that every single property is in a hyper-competitive bidding war, and a person in that market sells their house, how are they going to find a new place to live in there?

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#13

Post by mythrwy »

Speculation and free markets are great and all and there is a time and a place for those and it allocates capital more efficiently than central planning (from what we have seen so far) and freedom to attain wealth is a beautiful thing.

That being said, there are basic human needs that should be met by any civilization of note. And if a civilization doesn't then it is failing. These needs include the the opportunity to obtain food and water (or food and water itself), basic physical security (for the most part), and in respect to the topic, a place to lay ones head.

Home speculation never should have been allowed to grow to the monster it has become. Ever. Not just because it's morally wrong, but because it is destabilizing. As we found out before and will again.

When you have people sitting on three vacant homes in hopes they will appreciate while others are shitting in the streets and sleeping on sidewalks it's absolute lunacy. We all are entitled by birthright to a little piece of earth. It's our heritage. The current situation is just objectively nuts and will be corrected. Sure as gravity or the sun rising in the morning.

Now, I'm not suggesting to take everything from the rich and give to the poor. I know that doesn't really work sustainability. I also know everyone in the world can't live in the most desirable places. So I'm not making any concrete suggestions at all because I don't have the answers. But what we have going on now is both horrible and crazy.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#14

Post by obstinate »

mythrwy wrote: post #13

Speculation and free markets are great and all and there is a time and a place for those and it allocates capital more efficiently than central planning (from what we have seen so far) and freedom to attain wealth is a beautiful thing. That being said, there are basic human needs that should be met by any civilization of note. And if a civilization doesn't then it is failing. These needs include the the opportunity t…

The millennials we are talking about are not, for the most part, going without shelter. They are living in smaller, less nice place than they would otherwise, and/or renting.

Homelessness is a qualitatively different problem than middle class millennials competing with boomers for houses.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#15

Post by mythrwy »

obstinate wrote: post #14
mythrwy wrote: post #13

Speculation and free markets are great and all and there is a time and a place for those and it allocates capital more efficiently than central planning (from what we have seen so far) and freedom to attain wealth is a beautiful thing. That being said, there are basic human needs that should be met by any civilization of note. And if a civilization doesn't then it is failing. These needs include the the opportunity t…

The millennials we are talking about are not, for the most part, going without shelter. They are living in smaller, less nice place than they would otherwise, and/or renting. Homelessness is a qualitatively different problem than middle class millennials competing with boomers for houses.

True, but using homes as a wealth building instrument is (one of) the root problems in both the case of people not being able to own homes and homelessness.

I rant because, well, its just plain nuts, but I don't have answers.

I do think we need a paradigm shift in this regard though and I think it's inevitable, just a matter of how much pain it causes.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#16

Post by closeparen »

BrentOzar wrote: post #2

The flip side of this is that as the baby boomers pass, there's going to be a glut of retirement home communities available - and with my generation probably never being able to retire, that's going to be an interesting market.

Retirement home communities are not so much about the ability to retire as the necessity of receiving medical services from onsite staff.

I don't know what it will look like. Maybe being bussed to work every day from the retirement home. But for now, our bodies are most likely going to need them.

Re: Baby boomers are making it harder for millennials to buy homes

#19

Post by ceejayoz »

BrentOzar wrote: post #2

The flip side of this is that as the baby boomers pass, there's going to be a glut of retirement home communities available - and with my generation probably never being able to retire, that's going to be an interesting market.

The glut of housing will come with a massive loss in healthcare jobs, though.
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