Empty-Nest Boomers Own 1 in 4 Large US Homes: Report

Empty-nest baby boomers own more large homes than millennials with children in every major U.S. metropolitan area, creating a housing “mismatch,” according to an April 2 Redfin report.

Baby boomers (aged 62 to 80 years old) without kids living at home own more than one-quarter of the nation’s homes with three or more bedrooms, while millennials (aged 30 to 45) with kids still living at home own about 16 percent, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage said.

The much younger Generation Z (aged 13 to 28) owns less than 1 percent of the nation’s larger-sized homes, Redfin said.

Empty-nest baby boomers own 28 percent of large homes in the United States, with another 7 percent of boomers with at least three adults in the home also owning larger, family-sized homes.

More than half of older Americans don’t have a mortgage but choose not to move, partly because there aren’t enough smaller, “reasonably priced” homes for them to downsize into, Redfin said. Meanwhile, a desire to remain in their longtime neighborhoods and stay close to friends and family is also a factor keeping them in place.

“Gen Z will unfortunately have to be patient,” Stephen Kates, financial analyst with Bankrate, said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times, indicating that those factors are limiting younger generations’ ability to find family-sized homes.

“Millennials have been struggling to grab the first rung of the housing ladder for years and will continue to outbid and outcompete Gen Z for available homes. Even the oldest Gen Zers are not yet at an age when homeownership should be broadly expected.”

The Redfin home ownership report broke down 2024 Census data that dissected home ownership for homes with three or more bedrooms by generation, size, and household type. Although millennials make up the largest share of parents in the United States, they own a much smaller slice of family-sized homes because there aren’t enough large homes on the market, Redfin reported.

High interest rates and home prices also come into play, with many millennials priced out of the housing market, Redfin noted. According to Mortgage News Daily, the average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages is currently at 6.41 percent. However, on Feb. 23, the rate fell below the 6 percent threshold, giving homeowners an additional $30,000 in purchasing power.

Meanwhile, the median sales price for newly constructed homes in January was $400,500 in January, the Census Bureau reported. That’s a nearly 7 percent decline from a year earlier. Continued declines in new home prices could spur additional home purchases among younger buyers, Redfin said.

Kates told The Epoch Times that millennials and members of Gen Z are most affected by increases in mortgage rates because they are the demographic most likely to need a loan to purchase a property.

“Gen X and baby boomers are more likely to have substantial home equity and other assets they can use to buy a property,” Kates said.

“Most millennial and Gen Z homeowners have not owned their homes long enough to build sufficient equity to offset the need for a mortgage.”

The share of large homes owned by empty-nest older Americans was highest in Memphis, Tennessee, at a little more than 31 percent, Redfin noted. It dipped slightly to less than 31 percent in Cleveland, followed by Pittsburgh at 30.6 percent and New Orleans at 30 percent.

Millennials’ share, meanwhile, was highest in Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, at 19.2 percent, followed by Minneapolis at 18.9 percent.

Millennials with families owned the smallest share of large homes in Los Angeles (10.5 percent), Miami (12.5 percent), and San Jose, California (13.1 percent).

Empty-nest baby boomers, meanwhile, own the smallest share of family-sized homes in Salt Lake City (20.1 percent), Riverside, California (21.4 percent), and Austin, Texas (22 percent), Redfin said.