[ninininino]

Look up the median age of a home buyer in 2025:

It's 59 years old lol.

Boomers and institutional money are doing the home buying.

https://www.apolloacademy.com/median-age-of-all-us-homebuyer...

In 2009 the same chart shows that the median age was 39.

In the early 80s it was early 30s.

Look at congress, we live in a boomer gerontocracy. Not every boomer is wealthy and powerful, but the majority of people who are wealthy and powerful are either descendants of elites/wealthy, boomers, or a very small fraction of younger tech/finance/business owners.

The good news is - assuming there's not a big change in immigration rates - if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall.

[nitwit005]

> The good news is - assuming there's not a big change in immigration rates

There has been a big change in projected immigration rates: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61735

[ethbr1]

That looks great, for everyone who knows how the US is funded.

[ramesh31]

>"if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall"

But that "10-20 years" is your life, and there's no getting it back. Millennials (the largest generation in US history) have entered into our prime family starting age, and the fact that most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy. At a 90th percentile income, I can just barely be able to afford a home and provide for a family of 3-4 like our parents and grandparents did on a highschool education with no higher skills.

[rpcope1]

Yeah, it definitely feels like the TFR crisis where the actual problems won't show up until it's too late and we're basically turbofucked.

[zeroonetwothree]

I doubt your parents instantly bought a house as unskilled workers at age 18. Maybe in a very few ultra cheap housing markets that would have been possible.

For example in 1980 in SF the median home was $130k and the median household income was $16k. Today it’s $1240k and $141k. So yes it’s less affordable but it’s hardly a massive difference as you imply.

[lisbbb]

Starting? The Millenials are in their 40s! You'd better be well into raising kids by your 40s.

[collinmcnulty]

This might be a bit of talking past one another. The rent vs buy argument should be comparing similar housing, but your comment bakes in the assumption that renting=apartment. That may be true for your area, just wanted to point out the dissonance.

[brailsafe]

> most are priced out of the housing market right now and stuck renting apartments is a complete tragedy

It absolutely is, but as one of those myself, I just refuse to even attempt to pay their prices and will make the best of life while renting and doing other things, not having kids, not owning property unless the ratio changes dramatically. Owning at most a tiny condo for half a million where I live, or moving to the boonies to own marginally more for less is simply not appealing to me, it doesn't unlock anything but a vague sense of security and a shit ton of liability. I hope more people choose the same until the working age tranch of purchasing power isn't as available as they'd like and prices have to drop. It's a major issue, but maybe I should be thankful I never adopted the boomer/genx dreams of owning a place and having a family or whatever. It's something I'm morbidly watching from the sidelines for now (in my early-mid thirties), but there are no circumstances except a miracle side hustle that could create the circumstances for me to actually pursue a mortgage on a place in my city.

[zeroonetwothree]

This is all home buyers not first time home buyers. So it’s not clear what we can conclude. It could be that more retirees are buying a house to retire to rather than renting.

I imagine age of first time home buyers has also gone up but there’s no way it’s that high.

[darth_avocado]

First time home buyers is up to 40. Not as bad as 59 but not great either.

https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/first-time-home-buyer-share...

[dragonwriter]

59 year olds were born in 1966, so the average homebuyer is from Gen X, not a Boomer.

[motbus3]

I'm sure Ol' John is no player when we compare how much investment funds have being pushing to buy homes. Around here, you can't even bid for a small apartment. They get sold to the folks before they start. Paying flat taxes on hundreds of properties doesnt make sense. They don't contribute to generate more jobs. They just replace the buyer and charge extra money that could have be reverted to other expenses that would create a healthier economy by diversity.

[rpcope1]

I wonder if the distribution of ages for home buyers is not a normal distribution and maybe the median and standard deviations might tell us something more here. Regardless it's concerning that the average and likely median age has shot up that much.

[bdavisx]

>if you can rent cheaply enough for 10-20 years the boomers will start dying in sufficient numbers that if there is somehow no reversion on home prices in the mean time there should be insufficient buyers at that point and prices will eventually fall.

You may be missing something - there's so much money flowing upwards in society that the rich/ultra-rich will simply be able to buy ALL of that real estate as it becomes available. If not ALL, then everything that's desirable.

[lisbbb]

59 is really early Gen-X. The Boomers are all in their 60s and 70s now. They're downsizing.

[potato3732842]

They're not downsizing. They're buying smaller houses and renting their current ones.