Boomers making presence felt in Philly housing market

Baby boomers are bringing the heat to Philadelphia’s housing market.

The generation, largely in their 60s and 70s, are flexing their financial muscle in the city, Philadelphia Magazine reported. 

The reasons for the resurgence of baby boomers in the housing market vary as widely as the ages folded into the generational group. Many are out of the workforce, freeing them to live where they please and perhaps in urban centers where medical care and daily needs are more accessible.

Those who are still working are doing so for financial reasons, but are watching as their children move elsewhere, enabling them to save some money by downsizing their homes.

At the Laurel, a new Southern Land Company luxury condo building off of Rittenhouse Square, 60 percent of the 65 condos had been sold as of the end of January. Baby boomers represented roughly two-thirds of that buyer pool.

“For people that are downsizers and boomers, they’ve worked their entire life, and they’re at the place in life where they want the amenities in the building,” Southern Land’s Brian Emmons told the publication.

Based on the housing market, boomers are better positioned to make their moves now. While everyone is saddled with the same comparatively high mortgage rates compared to a few years ago, the aging generation can access the equity from their homes to finance purchases of new ones, something millennials can’t do.

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Millennials vs. Baby Boomers

It’s not just the City of Brotherly Love, either. Last year, the generation surpassed millennials as the largest segment of the homebuying population by age, ending the latter’s nine-year domination of the category.

Some boomers may remain reluctant to make a move, though. Many have ties, either physical or emotional, to their homes and the things and memories they’ve accumulated within. Additionally, moving into a condo in the city could limit the amount of grandchildren that can come visit simultaneously.

— Holden Walter-Warner