4plexowner, if the consider that boomers will sell their large homes in favor of smaller homes and condos, couldn’t it take decades to absorb the glut of larger homes? Wouldn’t that have a downward pricing pressure on real estate for decades?
One of the first questions I asked my financial advisor in my 20’s, which she dismissed was, “if the stock market prices go up due to demand, and demand is greater due to boomers putting money into the stock market, what happens in early 2000’s when the boomers take their money out: wouldn’t that make the stock market prices go down? So in my prime working years, as I am putting money into the stock market, boomers are taking it out and lowering the price?” I still think it’s a valid question.
Your dumping-houses statement reminds me of the dumping-stocks question. How much will the boomer retirement affect the real estate and stock markets? Perhaps not much; perhaps they will need to keep working. I wonder how many boomers will truly retire like the previous generation did. According to the Frontline story, the new trend is for boomers to keep working, even part-time, long into retirement, since they lost their pension funds and too much in the 2000 stock market crash
