Tired of Boomers who think rising home prices are a "good" thing

Shut up. Work harder. Stop complaining.

most boomers are dead and dying. where are you meeting boomers that say this? The nursing home? VFW?

Yup, abolish nearly all zoning.

I’m not sure about as CHEAP as possible but I generally agree.

There has been a bit of leveling off of prices which is a good thing. When interest rates started nudging up a bit it did temper the home prices somewhat.

I’m about in the middle of Gen X (47) and have a lot of friends in what you said were the “boomers.” There has been a lot of people that think the age range of boomers is too large and I think that’s true. A person born in 1946 has little in common with someone born in 1964. I think it’s the older boomers, those born closer to 1946, that like seeing the prices go up. They’re probably selling their homes, if they haven’t already, and getting ready for a huge downsize or a move to assisted living. Their children also have probably already bought a place. The younger boomers and those in Gen X may not want to see high prices because they’re worried about their children being able to afford a house. I know that I am.

I’m not sure why people rejoice in sky rocketing home prices. A primary residence should not be viewed as an investment. Investments should be rental properties or REITs.

I tired of people thinking that their thoughts about where housing prices should be matter.

If you like free enterprise and allowing supply and demand to rule prices, they you have no complaint. If you want cheaper houses, go where they are cheaper. If you want to live in certain desirable places, you have to be willing to pay more. Just like deciding between a bargain level Kia or a Tesla S. Or MD 20/20 versus top shelf single malt.

I have been in my current house for 17 years. If I sell it now I will probably get twice what I paid for it. And it is paid off. Why shouldn't I celebrate that? I'd celebrate if I had put the money in the stock market and I made a lot of money as well. And it likely wouldn't even a Boomer who would buy it from me. It likely would be someone born between 1975 and 1995.

Ideally the price of everything goes down over time (including houses) because productivity goes up (from new technology/innovation). With the same efforts more stuff gets done so that there is a surplus of whatever is being paid for and the prices can go down, allowing people to then spend their money on other things. Think of a hypothetical situation where we are able to build houses at half the cost, or new building techniques allow for a building to be made in half the time. Builders might keep some of that in profits, but some of that will result in a reduction in the price of construction.

Gen X here. The Boomers & X'ers started with no internet or mobile web. Just newspapers & encyclopedias. They took that baton & handed off 24/7 information at millennials' & Z'ers fingertips.

Millennials are 40+, & have significantly innovated less than any prior generation. They're good at consuming, setting cities on fire, pronouns & believing everything on their favorite news channel.

The younger set wants it all, now. They're conditioned to believe this, thanks to social media.

Many of us, myself included, started off small, in places you wouldn't want to live, and used equity to move into nicer homes over time. I'm on my fifth house, and I didn't stop renting until I was 30. That's five houses in 25 years.

The one I'm in now is worth a lot more than I paid for it, but it started out the most expensive house I ever bought. Even at what it was worth 25 years ago, I couldn't have afforded it. I was also driving a $4000 used car then, too.

Understand it yet?

Wrong. Rising house prices are of no use to the home owners unless they are moving to facilitated care. Higher home prices mean higher property taxes for most.

Well, I'm too young to be a Boomer, but still old enough to have bought a house for a price all of you would think was a steal. I AGREE with you.

I really don't care if the value of my house goes up or not as far as I am concerned, because I own it free and clear and it's just a wash if I buy another house somewhere else. BUT, I do care that young people are having a hard time buying houses...because I care about people first, not property.

The GOOD thing about rising interest rates is it is driving the prices of homes down. This doesn't necessarily help the person who needs to finance almost all of a home, but if you've got money saved up to put a lot down on one, this is helpful.

We do want the younger generation to be able to own a house if they want to and have additional disposable income to help the economy along.

My neighbor was a boomer killed in what was then South Vietnam. He might have been drafted. Please stop whining, Koko.

Forgot to say: For Boomers, of course they want their home values to increase. You will too.

You're only allowed to celebrate if you didn't vote for decades to restrict development around you. (Not saying anyone here did, but exclusionary zoning is common in nearly every major city).

Buy at low prices. Vote in anti-development candidates and enact strict zoning. Enjoy massive appreciation at the expense of younger generations. Restricted supply is not free enterprise.

Convincing generations of people to view homes as investments has badly hurt the availability of housing. Current homeowners have every incentive to restrict supply around them and drive up prices for their own profit.

Many state governments are finally coming around to this and dismantling rent-seeking regulation (i.e. crazy zoning laws) to allow development where the market demands it.

Boss to millennial worker bee: You need to finish this project by the end of the week, on your own.

Millennial: WHAT!!! By myself?

I never blamed my parents when they paid off their house which cost $17, 500. I was happy for them. I don't understand where this victim mentality stems from. I bought my current home with cash because I bought a house in SoCal in 2011 and it doubled in value, I sold it and moved to a state where real estate (and life) is not so hyper. Anyone can do it.

The true Boomers (post WWII children born 1946-54) are mostly retired and on fixed income. They will scream at you about how rising property values are causing their property taxes to go through the roof. And it is true. The lady who live across the street from me bought her house in 1982 for about $40k. Current tax appraisal market value for the property is $654k. Just five years ago it was $447k. Property taxes are over $10k a year now. Her kids are paying the property taxes for her because she told them that they only way she is leaving her house is in a coffin.

But before they retired, Boomers were obsessed with property values. That is because boomers bought into first growth suburban neighborhoods in the 60s and 70s back when suburban areas were rapidly developing in a bit of a wild west fashion. Into the 80s and 90s, cities sprawled out and white flight drained the first growth burbs and replaced them with minorities. So, most boomers have had the experience of having to get out of starter house they bought and move further out in the burbs in order to salvage property values. And then there are plenty of instances of people buying into a nice neighborhood only to have the vacant lot behind them developed into a Walmart or carwash or bar. That is why you can always strike up a very long conversation with boomers if you talk about zoning boards.

I bought my house in 2010 for $275k. It is currently tax appraised for $600k and would easily sell for $650k. If I added on about 1,000 sq ft, it would go for over a million. While it is nice to have over $400k in equity, it is really no use to me as all the houses way out in the burbs also shot way up. So, if I sold and moved to the burbs, I would probably have to spent at least $600k to get into a good neighborhood with good schools. So, it is, for now, just a zero sum game for me. Except that when I first moved in to the neighborhood it was full of artists, performers, activists, teachers and plenty of regular working class people with some high income people mixed in. Now, everyone is stinky rich and some EVP for something like global markets for some energy company.

As a prospective home buyer/owner, you control the market as much as someone you want to buy from.

You're starting a real bad habit of complaining and not acting.

Break this habit, it will NOT serve you well in life.