THE BASIS POINT

STAT FIGHT! Selfish Boomers Screwing Whiny Millennials On Homebuying

 
 

Time for another STAT FIGHT! Today is a battle of generations to see if selfish baby boomers are screwing whiney millennials out of housing.

This CNBC headline yesterday is a good setup:

MILLENNIALS WHINE

Damn selfish boomers have only ever cared about themselves! Rode decades of prosperity, may be the last to reap full social security, and now squatting in oversized homes instead of downsizing or moving to retirement homes. Which means less housing and a tougher market for me.

BOOMERS LECTURE

These soft kids need to work for their dreams just like we did. We bought homes fair and square, raised our families, love our American Dream, and I ain’t moving to a nursing home or shitty apartment any time soon.

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STATS TO FIGHT ABOUT

– “Aging in place” is smart talk economists use to describe boomers keeping their homes instead of downsizing in retirement like they used to.

– Freddie Mac says aging in place means about 1.6 million homes “missing” from the real estate market, and we need to build 2.5 million new homes just to meet current demand.

– And demand will rapidly increase as millennials reach middle age.

– The National Association of Home Builders says only around 1.08 million homes were built yearly from 2005 to 2017, so we’d have to double homebuilding in a year to meet Freddie’s housing stock estimate.

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STAT FIGHT PRO TIPS

– Make sure you say Aging In Place a lot to infuriate millennials and boomers alike.

– Ask indignantly about political layers: why aren’t local, state, and federal governments helping builders reduce costs and train more workers to fix a labor shortage?

– Remember some areas are facing a housing crunch is because regulatory, material, and labor costs for builders remain stubbornly high.

– Reopen old STAT FIGHT wounds about how the system is preventing your graduation from student debt to mortgage debt.

– And make sure everyone knows older Americans need to keep what they got because it’s only going to get worse.

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GLOVES ON … OR OFF

Take these numbers to family gatherings near you this pre-holiday weekend.

You millennials can whine to boomer parents to get busy movin’ or get busy dyin’, because you need a house to move into!

You boomers can lecture your millennial kids about Your House and Your Rules.

Hit us with how your STAT FIGHT goes…

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Reference:

As more older Americans ‘age in place,’ millennials struggle to find homes (CNBC)

Why aren’t there enough homes to buy? Blame old people, says Freddie Mac

Cliff’s Notes on giant Harvard housing report

Wait, most houses are how old?!

STAT FIGHT! Student debt not a systemic problem, just a whiny millennial problem

 

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