Baby boomers buy into luxury, not less space
→ Would you be surprised by the results of a recent Sotheby’s study that shows baby boomers are the real driver behind the luxury real estate market in Canada? For the last two decades financial planners and demographic watchers have predicted that the baby boomer generation is going to downsize— but this trend just never came to fruition.
Instead, baby boomers have been investing in luxury homes and condos, while helping their Gen-Y offspring with home purchases. According to the Sotheby International Realty Canada study, nearly a third of first-time Gen-Y homebuyers got some sort of money help from their baby boomer parents, despite their parents’ desire to either hold on to the family home or to resize to a smaller, but more luxurious home.
How many first-time buyers purchase a detached home?
→ Another study from Canada’s second-biggest mortgage insurer, Genworth, offered a glimpse into the “typical first-time homebuyer” currently in the market. According to the study, more than half of first-time buyers purchase a conventional, fully-detached home. However, buyers in the hot markets, such as Toronto and Vancouver (and in condo-booming Montreal) the percentage of first-time buyers who bought a single family detached home dropped to less than 30%.
Full article: http://www.moneysense.ca/property/buy/baby-boomers-buy-luxury-real-estate-and-other-stats/
