New research from the National Association of Realtors’ consumer website shows nearly 14 million more homes will become available to buyers over the next decade. The increase – due to baby-boomer home owners leaving large family homes they can no longer maintain – will be gradual but bigger than past generational handoffs. In fact, it’ll be 34 percent bigger than the one that happened a decade ago. Jiayi Xu, senior economist for the website, says the transition has already begun. “The scale of this transition is unlike anything we’ve see in the past decade, and it’s accelerating every year,” Xu said. “The question for buyers and sellers isn’t whether more homes are coming, but which homes, where, and how many buyers will be there to meet them.” More homes are coming but it still won’t be enough to close the persistent home shortage that has been holding the market back. Mostly, that’s due to the gradual pace of the transition and the fact that smaller, starter homes – which are the market’s most needed – make up less than 500,000 of the 13.9 million homes expected to become available. (source)
