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submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Buying a family-sized home with three or more bedrooms used to be manageable for young people with children. But with home prices climbing faster than wages, mortgage rates still close to 23-year highs and a shortage of homes nationwide, many Millennials with kids can’t afford it. And Gen Z adults with kids? Even harder.

Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are staying in their larger homes for longer, preferring to age in place and stay active in a neighborhood that’s familiar to them. And even if they sold, where would they go? There is a shortage of smaller homes in those neighborhoods.

As a result, empty-nest Baby Boomers own 28% of large homes — and Milliennials with kids own just 14%, according to a Redfin analysis released Tuesday. Gen Z families own just 0.3% of homes with three bedrooms or more.

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[-] blazera@kbin.social 186 points 7 months ago

They trying to distract us. I aint looking at the single home owning boomers, its landlords and corporate real estate companies hoarding homes.

[-] Volume@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

Absolutely, it isn't those boomer parents living in a house for 40 years that are driving up the costs. It's corporations and landlords buying houses as investments so that they can rent them out while the market skyrockets.

[-] LSNLDN@slrpnk.net 11 points 7 months ago

Yeah this needs more of an upvote, take a THIS

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[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 158 points 7 months ago

This post is a load of horse shit.

The reason housing prices are out of control is because investment firms are gobbling them up with cash, yet you’re blaming it on boomers staying in their homes.

Boomers are staying in their homes BECAUSE the housing market is out of control. Stop blaming older people and start blaming Wall Street.

[-] thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 27 points 7 months ago

Exactly. Where will they move to? Most older people want to stay in the neighborhood that they grew up in. It's not like an 80 year old will be selling their house in suburban Long Island to find a cheap room in rural Alaska.

[-] Smoogs@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

And it’s not like new houses haven’t been built since grandpa bought his house.

And it’s not like there isn’t people benefitting now on a housing shortage caused by Airbnb buying up all that new housing.

Blaming boomers for corrupt Airbnb for this is a desperate reach.

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[-] saintshenanigans@programming.dev 153 points 7 months ago

Idgaf about the boomers who want to grow old in the homes they bought. Thats their right as a homeowner. I care about the airbnbs, unskilled flippers, and the corps trying to turn America into a "renters market"

[-] ohlaph@lemmy.world 38 points 7 months ago

Exactly. My parents are boomers and own one house. But my sister and her son live with them, so they are utilizing their space.

It's the corporations that own several rentals, complexes, etc that drive rent and house prices up. Can't compete with their practices .

[-] creamed_eels@toast.ooo 10 points 7 months ago

I read the disaster insurance in some states are so outrageous or even unobtainable, so private citizens can’t even get a mortgage (no insurance, no loan) anymore-assuming they could afford one to begin with. The only ones who can afford to outright buy in some places are corporations and foreign interests. It’s fucking trash.

[-] captainWhatsHisName@lemm.ee 31 points 7 months ago

There are so many “boomer bad”, “genx vs millenniall”, “zoomers are lazy” stories lately. Seems like they got tired of just pitting races against each other and moved onto fake generational conflict. This way we don’t notice what the billionaires are doing to all of us. Meanwhile the 5 richest billionaires doubled their net worth.

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[-] dipshit@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

This. it’s ok to own a home. It’s ok to rent a home. people need places to live.

What’s not ok is being a slumlord.

[-] MaoZedongers@lemmy.today 15 points 7 months ago

yeah kinda feels like the corporations trying to push a bogeyman to distract us.

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[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 70 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Really tired of big news companies blaming individuals for industries ruined by the greedy elite, if I can't afford to buy a house, then they can't afford to move houses. My parents wouldn't have a shot in the dark affording a new house.

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[-] Localhorst86@feddit.de 67 points 7 months ago

Boomers shouldn't have to part with their homes. They, too, need a place to live.

The issue is not Boomers owning the house they live in and refusing to leave it (even if it might be larger than they require) The issue is in particularly large corporations owning thousands of properties and taking them away from the housing market.

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[-] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 63 points 7 months ago

This is a fucking bullshit article. Between Airbnb and filthy scum investment companies buying up homes to rent, actual owners are nowhere near the biggest problem

Stop upvoting shit like this. CNN = Clearly Not News

[-] cygnosis@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)
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[-] grilledcheesecowboy@kbin.social 13 points 7 months ago

Not only are corporations buying up houses to rent, they're actively preventing new houses for purchase from being built through "build to rent" schemes. They use the already scarce construction resources and divert them to building housing with the sole intention of renting them out.

So they're keeping the supply houses available to own down, and then preventing new supply from being created. It's a giant fuck you from corporations and shitty local government for letting it happen.

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 61 points 7 months ago

Article makes it sound like an old people problem. It isn't. It's a systemic one. People can't afford houses.

[-] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 33 points 7 months ago

And they want the old people to just leave their homes when their kids move out? As if there aren't tons of other reasons to stay in your home.

It's a weird article that's trying to put generations against each other.

[-] FMT99@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago

Not that weird. The corporate media has been pushing this narrative for a while. They realize that younger people don't respond to the old racism or anti-lgbtq. But "evil old boomers are stealing your house/money/whatever" seems to work like a charm. It's just another distraction.

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[-] Black616Angel@feddit.de 11 points 7 months ago

You don't understand. You must be angry at old people, not rich people or companies.

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 49 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Well gee it's almost like after decades of being told they should treat houses as investments to be collected instead of sold, they listened.

The problem isn't boomers. It's people buying more than they need during a crisis.

Don't let them make you forget that 44 percent of homes were bought by corporations in 2023. In cash, above asking, no inspection.

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[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 48 points 7 months ago

Truts me a single individual owning a home is not a problem and it isn't what is causing housing insecurity.

It's corporations that own thousands even millions of homes

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[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 45 points 7 months ago

I love this community, seeing through the generational conflict bullshit.

Makes me wonder if the corporate propaganda networks are going to be in trouble because this seems to be one actual generational trend: younger generations don't seem to trust the media like older ones did.

I've seen CNN as basically Fox News but with a different target audience for over a decade now. They can't say as much stupid shit because that audience isn't as dumb as Fox's, but it's pushing the same divide and conquer shit.

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[-] notannpc@lemmy.world 39 points 7 months ago

I’m shocked! Is this yet another article that tries to blame the average American for the housing market problems instead of residential real estate “investors” buying up all the properties to rent or use as airbnbs?

Or what about the foreign investors who are buying up land and homes with what seems to be zero oversight?

But obviously it’s the boomers who just want to live in the house they bought.

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[-] karashta@kbin.social 36 points 7 months ago

"Shortage of homes" created by a parasitic class of people and corporations who gobble up all the available homes

[-] cosmic_slate@dmv.social 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Baby boomers aren't some evil monolith hiding in the closet waiting to steal your bag of Oreos.

Where do you propose they move to? Even if we wanted them to vacate homes, there's an assisted living shortage (heads up, article is kind ehhhhhhhh overall) so we can't just shove them somewhere.

[-] Zorque@kbin.social 17 points 7 months ago

Baby boomers aren't, but capitalists are.

They're the ones who gobble up all available real estate to manipulate everyone else with for their own benefit.

I assume that was Karashta's intent, not Baby boomers as you deflected to.

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[-] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 34 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Corporate propaganda.

Obviously fuck boomers.

But we can't afford housing because of corporations. Not other people.

In general when other people are being blamed for your problems, it's corporate propaganda. They don't want us working together.

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[-] Belgdore@lemm.ee 30 points 7 months ago

Boomers should have housing. And we shouldn’t ignore the idiosyncratic attachments that people develop to their homes. Saying “the boomers need to move so I can have a home” is no different than saying “that people group needs to move so my people group has living space.”

We can all have homes. The problem is that the corporations are incentivized to buy residential property and rent it to us. Fuck them.

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[-] viking@infosec.pub 29 points 7 months ago

“Old people to blame for not selling their houses or dying sooner!"

Seriously, WTF? It's my house. The entitlement of some people...

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[-] AlijahTheMediocre@lemmy.world 29 points 7 months ago

How bout, now hear me out, we build more and better housing. I'm not throwing Grandma and Grandpa to the curb I'm overthrowing Capitalism first

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 10 points 7 months ago
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[-] Zuberi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 7 months ago

We just need more of them, not some random group to get fucked out of their housing. Bleed the 1%

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[-] Smoogs@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Ok so we’re trying to blame boomers now for Airbnb now? Cuz there’s more than enough NEW housing that was turned into Airbnb by gobbling firms.

Brian Joseph Chesky (born August 29, 1981) is an American businessman and industrial designer and the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Chesky is the 249th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $8.6 billion, mostly due to his ownership of 76 million shares of Airbnb.

Where did Brian Chesky start Airbnb?

San Francisco Airbnb. In October 2007, the Industrial Designers Society of America was hosting a conference in San Francisco and all hotel rooms were booked. The pair could not afford rent for the month and decided to rent their apartment for money.

You can safely leave the boomers out of that conversation for how the unchecked system was actually broken by a millennial.

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago

That’s not the problem.

[-] Supermariofan67@programming.dev 22 points 7 months ago

Media doing everything they can to keep people fighting each other rather than the owner class...

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[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 18 points 7 months ago

My parents live in Texas and I live in WA. They say they wish they could afford to live closer to me, but based on their actions it seems like they value having a big piece of real estate more than they value being close to me.

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[-] quams69@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago

Boomers are not the enemy. Corporations are.

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[-] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 15 points 7 months ago

They can’t sell. Their adult children have to live with them since they can’t afford anything else.

[-] Birdie@thelemmy.club 14 points 7 months ago

And where is it suggested boomers should live? My MIL has a paid-for home, but is now in assisted living. It costs 6K a month, which is eating through her savings at a shocking rate, even though we're paying a portion of her AL rent.

If she had the ability to stay home, you better believe she would, because she can't afford to part with her home.

[-] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I'm genuinely curious: your MIL is in expensive assisted living yet still owns a home she's no longer living in? Wouldn't the move here be to sell the home now with housing prices so high, and use the profits from it to fund the assisted living expenses?

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[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I wrote out a very angry reply, but as often happens, as I cooled down and reflected, it was 100% the result of this enormously clickbait title, not the article itself.

The article itself DOES mention the mortgage rates, and it DOES acknowledge that Boomers might be willing to move out (in direct contradiction to its own title) but cannot bc of a shortage of affordable smaller homes, the same as everyone else.

In short, Boomers are trapped too - again it's not that they "won't" so much as they "can't" - even if sitting better in a home that they (hopefully) own rather than having to rent.

There is simply no excuse for such a rage-baiting, purposefully combative title.:-( Maybe we need to start using AI to generate new titles to replace those profit-mongering ones? :-)

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[-] Mango@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

Nobody expects anyone to give up their own home.

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[-] rusticus@lemm.ee 10 points 7 months ago

Corporations and foreign countries are buying up real estate like crazy and OP wants to blame retired people? STFU.

[-] DrMango@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Not sure how common this is nationally, but around here it's also common for the older generation to maintain two properties a "home" in the city/metro area near their kids or grandkids and a "cabin" which is literally a second home somewhere else.

I think it'd be great to give up the home in the metro and downsize to a condo or apartment, but that's just me.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Yeah, old people! Get out of your houses! Die in the street for everyone else's benefit!

Just like how you were supposed to die to vote for Trump in the Iowa caucus and die from COVID to help the economy.

The point is, this is entirely your fault and we hate you and go die. In a hole preferably, so we don't have to hear you moan about needing social security and medicare.

Sincerely,

Republicans

(P.S. Vote for us before you die! Kthx.)

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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
344 points (80.8% liked)

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