Baby Boomers, What’s the Next Move?

by janetporcaro | Jul 23, 2014 | Buying a Home, Market Reports, Selling a Home

Baby Boomers, What’s the Next Move?

The headline from the Washington Post reads: More home buyers are bringing all-cash offers to the table While home prices continue to rise in the Greater Boston Area, buyers are competing for houses resulting in bidding wars. When these houses close, they become the new comps which further contributes to pushing market value up. For example, Newton single family home price increased over last year. In addition, see the table below for a market snapshot of 10 Boston Area neighborhoods — prices are constantly higher while days on market have almost consistently decreased. If you would like to see more detailed data, please  download the July MarketReport. Yes, this is a Sellers’ Market! But before sellers put their homes on the market, they usually want a pretty good idea of where their next home will be. Since the baby boomers are make up a huge percentage of our population (not to mention that I am in that age group), the question rings, “Where will the boomers move to, if at all?”

“National Association of Realtors® reports market share of all-cash purchases have risen and currently make up 33 percent of the market…Economists point out many reasons for this popular trend. One is restrictive lending standards have caused many buyers, especially wealthy ones, to forgo a loan. Another is the aging baby boom generation, many of whom are trading down and paying for their purchase with cash accumulated from decades of equity.”  ~Excerpted from Realtor.org.

If in fact the baby boomer generation buyers are benefitting from equity earned, where are they going? If they are high-end sellers, they may be able to afford that fabulous row house in the city?  Others may choose to sit tight or relocate to a state where housing values are more conservative. Where are they going?

Where is the data on where baby boomers are buying? An even bigger question for those that are hanging tight is where will boomers live in their next stage of life? I’m just asking?