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Economy
Boomers Who Won't Die Sell Are Dominating the Housing Market
2017-08-08
[Bloomberg] Jake Yanoviak is hunting for houses. On a weekday afternoon in North Philadelphia, the 23-year-old painter cruises along on his bike, its black paint obscured under stickers from breweries and rock bands. He turns onto a side street, where he spots a few elderly neighbors, standing on adjoining porches. He parks, leans on one handlebar and makes his pitch.

"Anybody on the block considering selling?" Yanoviak asks gently. "I’m not a developer, I’m not interested in renting to students. I’m just a kid trying to buy a house, fix it up and live in it."

"We’re not going no place," replies a 70-something woman, relaxing in fuzzy white pig slippers in the row house where she’s lived twice as long as Yanoviak has been alive. "All these houses are taken."

Like much of his generation, Yanoviak is desperate to get a piece of an increasingly scarce commodity: prime American real estate. Millennials are finding themselves out in the cold because building has slowed, and longer-living baby boomers are staying put, setting up a simmering conflict between the two biggest generations in U.S. history.
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  650B fixie, low rent bars, no brakes.
Posted by: KBK   2017-08-08 21:18  

#8  Several years ago, mowing the vast acerage of Stately USN Manor, a california tagged F250 pulled up and asked to speak to the owner. Me being in paint/grass/oiled stained work pants and tshirt said I was. Mr f250 waddnt buying that but he did want to buy my house, offered me 2x what we paid; said no thanks and left him sitting at the curb while I made the next lap.... think I pizzed him off.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2017-08-08 19:12  

#7  Yes, Mrs. Warthog. Get into the market one way or another. When housing prices rise you can sell your small beginner house and use the profit for a down payment on a bigger house. It helps if you can put some sweat equity into that beginner house.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-08-08 18:10  

#6  On a weekday afternoon in North Philadelphia, the 23-year-old painter cruises along on his bike, its black paint obscured under stickers from breweries and rock bands.

(Bet with self - it's a hipster style fixed-gear bike...)

(Takes a look at the picture in the article, notices the lack of handlebar shifts on the left handlebar...)

Why isn't this guy talking to a real estate agent? He's not that serious.
Posted by: Raj   2017-08-08 18:07  

#5  Another factor is that many of these young prospective buyers expect to go big or go home - the idea of starting by buying a condo or a small house or something in less than the optimal neighborhood with a plan to work their way up doesn't work for them. The boomers who want to stay where they are likely started out smaller yet the millenials think they deserve the boomers' homes.
Posted by: warthogswife   2017-08-08 16:03  

#4  OC Register on "forever homes" in Socal
Posted by: Zorba Omineter3432   2017-08-08 13:51  

#3  At 97 finally put my mom in an Escaton facility in Northern California outside Sacramento. She had her own room, en suite bath and a small kitchen although three meals a day in the dining hall were provided. 24/7 nurse on site and several attendants. $5200 a month.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2017-08-08 11:03  

#2  There are no stock market 'sure bets' but old folks home stocks Welltower Inc. (HCN) and Omega (OHI) have done amazingly well over the years. The cost of staying in these places is absolutely staggering. If you can somehow stay at home looking out the window or pecking away on the Burg, you (and your estate) can save a butt load.
Posted by: Besoeker   2017-08-08 10:48  

#1  We tried to talk my mother into moving in with one of us or into a retirement community. But she was independent and stubborn. She lived in the same house for 50 years until she died at 92. I must admit, if I can do the same I will.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2017-08-08 10:20  

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