Baby Boomers will Drastically Shift Housing Market

Time to talk about the Baby Boomers and their upcoming retirements again. This time, the focus is on the future of the housing market as so many Boomers prepare for retirement at the same time. And it’s a report from the Canadian Press that’s got everyone talking about the impact that will have.
In the report, the Conference Board of Canada stated that by the year 2030, nearly the entire housing market will be made up of those 65 years and older – in fact, a whopping 80% of the market will be made up of this group. Of that number, 60% of new homes will also be started by those 75 and older. The shift this will cause in the housing industry over the next 18 or so years isn’t really anything too surprising. The Baby Boomers make up one-third of Canada’s population and just about anything they do as a whole greatly impacts the economy. And given the different lifestyles of retirees, it’s also not surprising that such a large group would cause such a large shift.
Many in their retirement years find that it’s the time to travel and experience things that they never had a chance to when they were a slave to the clock. Their children are now grown, so that large family home is no longer necessary and, with little time actually spent inside the home, there’s no need to carry that large mortgage either. For these reasons, many retirees like to downsize their homes in their golden years and save some of that mortgage money for luxury items.
Many others in their retirement years find that home is exactly where they want to be. It’s here that they can have family over for Sunday suppers, spend time quilting, woodworking, scrapbooking, and enjoying all the other hobbies in life that they never had time for during their working years. However, even though these homebodies might want to stick close to the homestead, they simply don’t have the capacity or desire to maintain a large yard and spend time cleaning a huge home from top to bottom. While these Boomers may not be jet-setters, they still have new housing needs and will also be looking to get rid of a large mortgage for one that’s a little smaller.
So what does the outlook mean for the future of Canada’s housing market? Nothing necessarily good or bad, simply that the market will look extremely different in 2030 than it does today. Only time will tell what changes this shift will actually bring, but one thing is for sure – there are changes on the way.