Baby boomers will be selling their homes, but will their children want to buy them?

As home-owning baby boomers age, they'll eventually be leaving their homes. But it's unclear whether the next generation will be eager or willing to buy them, according to a new paper from the Bipartisan Policy Center. As John Pitkin and Dowell Myers wrote in 2008, "The sell-off of seniors" former housing creates a potential supply that will potentially exceed younger adults "effective demand".

Babyboomers will be vacating more homes than they occupy as they move into nursing homes, move in with their children, or pass away over the next two decades. They're expected to release a net total of as many as 26 million housing units by 2030, according to the report. And young people might not be willing or able to buy new homes.

Young adults have higher levels of credit card and student loan debt than their predecessors, some of which could take decades to pay off, and they're expected to inherit less wealth from their parents as well, given the recent bust. Exacerbating the problem is the current downturn, which has already scared off young people from buying houses and could cut into Generation Y's future earnings and wealth as well. And even those who may be financially capable of buying homes may be more reluctant to do so after having witnessed the impact of the housing bust, as Derek Thompson points out.

As a result, conditions that are currently holding back the housing recovery "and the larger economy" could also cast a shadow in the decades to come: not enough homebuyers and many more renters, which could depress home prices while keeping rents high as Generation Y grows up.

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Kelly By :RE: A CEO of a large investment bank commtis massive fraud, enriching himself in the process. In this backwards country, the CEO uses his influence and connections to become the Secretary of the Treasury, where he then demands a blank check to bail out his former employer whose misdeeds have bankrupted the company. He also engineers a no prosecution policy, as if that were at all necessary anyway. He then works with the equally corrupt head of the country's central bank to dump these bad investments on the general public. And the corrupt Congress mandates that fraudulent accounting practices be enforced, lest the truth become too visible.In what backwards banana republic could such outrageous practices occur? Bolivia? No. Ecuador? No. Brazil? Heavens no. Give up? The answer: It is the United States of America.Sounds like Italy with Berlusconi good role model for the US of A!?Reminds me of an old joke:In heaven: The French do all the cooking, the Germans fix things, the Brits run the police, the Swiss run the government and the Italians are the lovers.In Hell: The Brits do all the cooking, the French fix things, the Germans run the police, the Swiss are the lovers and the Italians run the government! read more... 05/02/2012 Read all comments: 1