A recent article in The Seattle Magazine analyzes the current housing market and the direct correlation between baby boomers entering retirement and the current homes available for sale. The Seattle Times points out, as the generation of baby boomer enters retirement, less retirees are opting to downsize to smaller homes or sell their investment rental properties.
With this generation less willing to relocate to a smaller house or condo or sell their investment properties, younger generations of home buyers are having less inventory to choose from. As discussed by the FutureCast Forum, a panel of market experts, “Baby-boomers are healthier, wealthier and treading water longer in their current homes,” said FutureCast Economist and Appraiser Brian O’Connor. Additionally, he states “the prior generation are simply much fewer in population count, so between the two demographic cohorts, we’re just not seeing the same levels of homes recycling to the next generation as we have in prior decades.”
So what is in store for future home buyers? According to the FutureCast Forum, with less inventory for potential home buyers, there has been an influx in high-rise condominium developments within Seattle. With many retirees having “acquired significant portfolios of investment properties,” and not being able to fully retire, these condominiums are the perfect opportunity for “empty-nesters and retirees to downsize to a single-level residence while up sizing their lifestyle.”