Baby Boomers’ Housing Choices Spark Concerns Over Potential Real Estate Crisis

The United States is grappling with a housing crisis, and surprisingly, the culprit is the baby boomer generation.

As millennials and Generation Z embark on their quest for spacious, family-friendly homes, they’re facing a daunting challenge: finding affordable housing options in the current market.

With property prices skyrocketing, older baby boomers are holding onto their expansive homes, effectively locking younger buyers out of desirable market segments.

According to a recent study by real estate platform Redfin, empty-nester baby boomers possess 28 percent of the country’s largest homes.

Remarkably, Redfin’s research highlights that in every major U.S. metropolitan area, these empty-nest boomers own more large homes than millennial families, revealing a significant gap between those who have ample space and those who are in dire need of it.

Millennials with kids only own around 16 percent of large homes with more than three bedrooms in the US. 

Gen Z parents, who are just now entering the housing market, own a measly 1 percent of the nation’s large homes. 

And for many younger Americans, owning their own home isn’t even on the radar. 

Baby Boomers currently own the most large homes with three or more bedrooms

Around 25 percent of millennial and Gen Z renters say they don’t plan to buy a home anytime soon simply because they can’t afford one where they want to live, no matter how many bedrooms they might want or need.

Shai Reshef, president of the University of the People, cited mounting student loans, in addition to other financial burdens, as reasons why millennials hesitate to buy homes. 

‘Young adults do not lack ambition,’ Reshef told The Daily Mail. ‘They are navigating a world where student loan payments, inflated housing costs and tighter lending standards make it much harder to save for a down payment or qualify for a mortgage.’ 

‘That is why many people in these generations believe homeownership has become less a milestone and more a financial hurdle,’ he added.

Baby boomers, now in their sixties and seventies, have good financial reasons to remain in their giant homes. 

More than half of property owners have completely paid off their houses – and for some, the added cost of purchasing a condo just isn’t worth it. 

‘I hear empty nesters say they want to downsize, but it’s hard to find move-in ready, small, one-story homes or condos in their price range – especially since many of them are living in a fully paid-off home,’ Philadelphia-based agent Brenda Beiser said during an interview with Redfin.

‘So there’s a lack of movement that’s keeping both older and younger buyers where they are, even though the older ones want a smaller home and the younger ones want a bigger home,’ she added. 

New Jersey is among the most expensive states to live, with the median household income about $104,000

Empty nesters own the biggest share of homes in Memphis, Tennessee – holding 31  percent of all large houses. 

Unsurprisingly, millennials with kids have the biggest share of large homes in Austin, coming in at over 19 percent.

Austin had one of the fastest growing cycles in the country during Covid. When tech workers started moving to the city, developers responded with a surge of apartment construction. 

‘That surge in new units has temporarily shifted the market in favor of renters and led to more than two years of rent declines,’ real estate developer Uri Man previously told The Daily Mail. 

That’s good news for incoming renters who will have a wide array of luxury apartments, but bad news for current homeowners and sellers, as homes in the area now sit on the market losing value. 

Now, the Texas boomtown is among four metros that have 50 percent more homes on the market than pre-pandemic norms, Realtor.com reports.

Home price aside, the rising cost of living makes coveted areas less attainable. 

In California, the most expensive state to live in, the median household income was just over $100,000, with the average home value reaching $761,839 as of September 2025. 

New Jersey has the second-highest cost of living and the second-most-expensive housing. There, the median household income was around $104,000 and the average home price last September was $562,460. 

But the cost of living crisis is impacting residents nationwide – a GOBankingRates report found that Americans must earn at least $100,000 per year to live comfortably in 26 of the nation’s 50 biggest cities.