More Baby Boomers Staying In Home Instead Of Downsizing

USA Today reports that a recent study by Trulia shows that a growing number of aging baby boomers are choosing not to downsize their family home as they age. “We’re just not seeing that much downsizing,” says Alexandra Lee, a housing data analyst at Trulia. The ones that are moving to a smaller footprint are doing it later in life.
A more modest home typically means less upkeep and a potential financial windfall as a big chunk of the proceeds from the sale of the larger property can help bolster retirement nest eggs. Boomers, however, are defying the traditional bounds of advancing age just as they rebelled against the establishment in the 1960s and work- and family-centered values in the 1970s in favor of self-fulfillment.
“They have refused to follow what the traditional expectations were,” says Barbara Risman, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
There are other forces at work. Boomers, generally those age 54 to 73, are working longer and putting off retirement. Many of their millennial children are living with them well into adulthood. And there’s a dire shortage of less expensive entry-level houses across the country, pushing up prices in that category and making the trade-off less appealing.
Fifty-two percent of boomers say they’ll never move from their current home, according to a Chase bank survey of 753 boomer homeowners released earlier this year. Chase doesn’t have comparable data from an earlier period. An Ipsos/USA TODAY poll of 45- to 65-year-olds in 2017 found 43% anticipated remaining in their current residence through their retirement, possibly indicating the share of non-downsizers is rising.

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