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Is this supposed to be a joke?


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2009 Jun 22, 2:24am   1,718 views  4 comments

by mdovell   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/burns-on-business/2009/06/echo-boom-will-bail-out-housing.html

Yes I know I'm questioning a harvard study here but consider a few things

1)  I'm getting a bit sick of this generation x or y or z or even I now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

Now in terms of what we know and what we don't know...we know that the ages are not in the same pattern of what the baby boomers were. It's scattered around.

2) Any generation from the early 70s onward grew up with birth control of nearly all forms. So automatically the chances of smaller familes is there

3) The debt levels are higher than prior genreations and therefore this means that you might see people opt for smaller housing either in staying apartments, condos or maybe a duplex

4) The baby boomers are going to gradually pass away like all other generations. And we still have 19 million empty homes in the country. Unless you have 19 million more xers or whatever than boomers than prices will STILL go down. When boomers pass away they will inherit homes rather than need to buy new ones. If anything this study might simply indicate that we'd hit a bottom. We certainly are not going to go back to the high flying days of 2005.

#housing

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1   missgredenko   2009 Jun 22, 3:04am  

A lot of people have made the argument that that's why our government has looked the other way on illegal immigration (support of social security and housing in the soon to be wake of elderly boomer numbers)

On an anecdotal note that has nothing to do w/immigration , my single bil just said to my husband on the way out the door yesterday, so you're looking for a place w/an in-law apartment? I'd be into that. My in-laws that are moving into their 80s admitted they might not be as adverse to the idea of living w/relatives as they were just a few years back. That one really shocked me. It's linked w/a medical scare more than a monetary scare but at least in my little world, times, they are a changin'.

2   michaelsch   2009 Jun 22, 5:03am  

Just a BS.

take a look at pop. pyramids in 1975 and in 2009:

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbpyry.pl?cty=US&maxp=14472339&maxa=85&ymax=250&yr=1975&.submit=Submit+Query

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbpyry.pl?cty=US&maxp=14472339&maxa=85&ymax=250&yr=2009&.submit=Submit+Query

Beside this, there are no real jobs for all these "echo boomers". That's why one of the names for them is boomerang generation: they en mass come back to their parents homes after college.

At any rate their numbers do not justify ongoing housing construction, not even mentioning 17mil. existing empty houses, and many millions partially used ones.

3   michaelsch   2009 Jun 22, 5:40am  

Just want to add to the previous post:

This gets to the root of the problems we face going forward: the inability to create good jobs. The twin bubbles spawned by Fed, in technology and then in housing, marked an era in which our resources were misallocated. Many jobs that were created then and subsequently lost will not be returning.

Even if "echo boomers" may be slightly more numerous than boomers were at their age, they are going to be much poorer.

4   sfbubblebuyer   2009 Jun 22, 5:53am  

We're going to be paying way more to support the retirees, that's for sure! The boomers had negligible tax drag due to SS and Medicare compared to today, and today's burden will seem small in 20 years.

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