How baby boomers have remade home buying
As she approached retirement, Clare Lynch began to think about downsizing from her Silver Spring, Md., split-level, where she had lived for 22 years. After considering several towns near the Chesapeake Bay, she moved her search to Leisure World, a community of 5,600 homes for those ages 55 and over, spread across 610 acres in northern Silver Spring, Md. She toured dozens of homes there before settling on a one-level, two-bedroom, two-bathroom house attached to two others.
“It’s the best decision I ever made,” she said, noting the dozens of activities available to residents, from a ceramics studio to water aerobics, as well as nearby shopping and health care. “Whatever you want, it’s right there.” She said she also appreciates that yard maintenance and snow removal are taken care of for residents.
Lynch is part of a trend of people buying homes as they age. The median age of all repeat home buyers is 58, according to the National Association of Realtors, and some of these, like Lynch, are buying in age-restricted communities.
“We are seeing that in 2024 every single boomer has turned at least 60, a critical time period where they are asking themselves, ‘Do I want to retire? Where do I want to live?’,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
“Last year, baby boomers were the biggest share of buyers. What that means is they’re buying later in life than traditionally. Previously, we didn’t see the retired saying, ‘I want to move.’ Baby boomers have reinvented everything. I suspect they’re reinventing what it means to be a retiree. It doesn’t have to look like their parents’ generation.”
In its 2024 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Report, the Realtors association found that 19 percent of all buyers over 60 moved to...