Why Baby Boomers Drive the Housing Market for Millennials
Excerpted from “Majority of 55+ Homeowners Confident of Financially Comfortable Retirement”
– with permission from FreddieMac.com
- The Freddie Mac 55+ Survey identified a number of other opportunities and challenges for the housing industry that will stem from the decisions Baby Boomers and other older homeowners make over the next few years.
- For example, 63 percent of the 55+ homeowners surveyed say they prefer to age in place if they had complete control over it. However, nearly 40 percent indicate they would prefer to move at least one more time. This suggests nearly 27 million homeowners over age 55 may move again. When asked when they expect to move next, 13 percent think they will move within four years.
- Of those homeowners who would consider moving, 12 percent believe their next home will be more expensive than their current one, while 37 percent believe it will be in the same price range, and half believe it will be less expensive. At the same time, 23 percent of homeowners say they would have to make major renovations in order to age in place.
- 55+ers cite cost and convenience as the top factors influencing whether to move and where to live: affordability of living in a particular community (46%); having the amenities needed to live there for many years after I retire (44%); less maintenance (41%); having a place where I was no longer responsible for caring for the property (e.g. yard work, snow removal) (30%); proximity to other family members (31%); being in a walkable community (28%); having abundant services for adults my age (25%); access to public transportation (17%); warmer climate (19%); having a place that is smaller than my current home (e.g. downsizing) (19%).
Methodology
GfK conducted an online survey on behalf of Freddie Mac using the GfK KnowledgePanel® from February 10-23, 2016. A total of 5,914 interviews were completed online, including oversamples of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, obtained through additional opt-in sample. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish. GfK’s KnowledgePanel® is the only large-scale online panel based on a representative random sample of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error was +/- 1.27 percentage points for the full sample. Sampling error is higher for subgroups. See the report for the full methodology.