Buying a family-sized home with three or more bedrooms used to be manageable for young people with children. But with home prices climbing faster than wages, mortgage rates still close to 23-year highs and a shortage of homes nationwide, many Millennials with kids can’t afford it. And Gen Z adults with kids? Even harder.
Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are staying in their larger homes for longer, preferring to age in place and stay active in a neighborhood that’s familiar to them. And even if they sold, where would they go? There is a shortage of smaller homes in those neighborhoods.
As a result, empty-nest Baby Boomers own 28% of large homes — and Milliennials with kids own just 14%, according to a Redfin analysis released Tuesday. Gen Z families own just 0.3% of homes with three bedrooms or more.
Not only are corporations buying up houses to rent, they’re actively preventing new houses for purchase from being built through “build to rent” schemes. They use the already scarce construction resources and divert them to building housing with the sole intention of renting them out.
So they’re keeping the supply houses available to own down, and then preventing new supply from being created. It’s a giant fuck you from corporations and shitty local government for letting it happen.