House: Mike and Heidi Canada/iStock; people: Ljupco Smokovski/iStock
Hey, millennials, there may be way more of you than there are baby boomers, but that doesn’t mean you’ll beat the oldsters in the real estate game. In other words, your main competition for that cool condo in the latest hip neighborhood may very well be your own parents.
Of the 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, according to the Washington Post, “many are seeking the type of urban living that typically has been associated with young college graduates—so much so that boomers are renting apartments and buying condos at more than twice the rate of their millennial children.”
There are 83.1 million millennials in the U.S., and they represent the fastest-growing segment of the new-home buyer’s market. It’s no wonder so many developers have been creating buildings specifically with an eye toward those born between 1980 and 2000. Millennials, goes the real estate lore, want bike storage, access to restaurants and cafes, walkable neighborhoods, and modern architecture.
Surprise: So, it turns out, do boomers! And they have way more money to spend. So while income-challenged millennials are looking for starter apartments and may be more amenable to studios or one-bedrooms, boomers “helped fuel a surge in high-end housing that features two-bedroom units and large kitchens reminiscent of boomers’ suburban homes,” the Post reported.
Much of the new condo construction is aimed at the luxury set, meaning there are fewer affordable units for the younger crowd, especially because new construction permits are down. So we’re not going to get a wealth of new housing to satisfy both markets anytime soon.
Meanwhile, boomer demand will likely continue. Many of those of retirement age actually reject the notion of traditional retirement and the housing associated with it. Very few “cruise ship” developments are made these days—the Sun City model in which an age-segregated, self-contained community is placed far from anything else.
Age integration is the new rage, which may mean adding accessory dwelling units to existing properties to create multigenerational housing; grafting new boomer-oriented neighborhoods onto existing communities, as happened with Victory at Verrado in Arizona; or simply creating a building that’ll appeal to more than one age range.
Quaking in your mortgage application, millennials? Well, not all generations will compete for your intended abode. The centenarians won’t give you trouble. There are only 53,364 of them.
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