Who Has the Most Impact on the Housing Market

An article in DSNews.com indicated that the Baby Boomers is the age group with the greatest influence on where the housing market will venture in the future. This is very evident in the San Ramon area where many of these homeowners have been in their homes for 30 plus years and have no intention of moving. Thus the case for increased prices due to shortages of inventories.

I am out in the neighborhoods and talk with many of these homeowners everyday and their comments are: our house is paid for, where would we go, the kids and grand kids are here.

Here is what the research indicated:

"Baby Boomers and other homeowners over the age of 55, which numbers about 67 million, control about two-thirds of the nation's aggregate home equity, which computes to about $8 trillion."

These numbers put this group in a position to greatly influence where the house market will go in the next decade. According to Freddie Mac Chief Economist, Sean Becketti "whether they decide to move from their current homes or age in place, the cumulative impact of their decisions on mortgage demand, affordable housing supplies and the housing options available to Millennials and other aspiring homeowners will be substantial."

Freddie Mac's survey of nearly 4,900 homeowners age 55 and over revealed that the majority of baby boomers are satisfied with their current homes.

Approximately 40 percent of boomers (27 million) who said that if they had complete control, they would move at least one more time. According to Freddie Mac, 19 million of those boomers plan to buy a home and eight million plan to move in the next four years.

Because of the limited land we have in the San Ramon Valley, new construction is minimal. So we may see tight inventories for quite some time keeping our market place very competitive.