us housing crisis
"A Redfin report shows empty nest boomers own 28% of large single-family homes, defined as those with three bedrooms or more, compared to 14% of millennials with children."
i'm sure this is totally fine and actually has nothing to do with the low birthrates people are complaining about
us housing crisis
@maya trying to parse this… is it partly because there are no affordable smaller homes for the empty nesters to move into? if they’ve already paid off that big house, i’m wondering if they can’t afford to move, if that makes sense.
us housing crisis
@autumn @maya in my observation, it's more common for them to just be too comfortable to move. now they've got a guest room and an office or craft room, and ample space for the decades of stuff they've accumulated. and/or they're renting them out for additional income.
downsizing just isn't a thing Americans tend to do unless life gives them a shove in that direction.
us housing crisis
@twistylittlepassages @autumn yeah, "decades of stuff" is definitely one explanation that makes sense relative to the people i know. w/globalization owning things became so so so much cheaper for americans
us housing crisis
@maya @autumn yes. also a lot of financially comfortable boomers grew up poor*, so their hoarding instincts are still in play even though they could absolutely buy whatever they needed at a moment's notice.
*and came of age in an era where there were far more opportunities to shift oneself from poverty to the middle class
us housing crisis
@autumn @twistylittlepassages @maya boomers/older gen x downsizing are *also* currently dominating the market for smaller homes—the eg of the median repeat homebuyer is up to 58, & first time home buyers currently make up less than a third of the market: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/america-s-homebuyers-are-getting-older/ar-AA1kdYwC
Ironically, that article attributes the lack of adults with children buying homes to the declining birthrate, rather than the difficulty getting a home as a young prospective parent encouraging people to delay / not have kids
