IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2003.11565.html

The Millennial Boom, the Baby Bust, and the Housing Market

Author

Listed:
  • Marijn A. Bolhuis
  • Judd N. L. Cramer

Abstract

As baby boomers have begun to downsize and retire, their preferences now overlap with millennials' predilection for urban amenities and smaller living spaces. This confluence in tastes between the two largest age segments of the U.S. population has meaningfully changed the evolution of home prices in the United States. Utilizing a Bartik shift-share instrument for demography-driven demand shocks, we show that from 2000 to 2018 (i) the price growth of four- and five-bedroom houses has lagged the prices of one- and two-bedroom homes, (ii) within local labor markets, the relative home prices in baby boomer-rich zip codes have declined compared with millennial-rich neighborhoods, and (iii) the zip codes with the largest relative share of smaller homes have grown fastest. These patterns have become more pronounced during the latest economic cycle. We show that the effects are concentrated in areas where housing supply is most inelastic. If this pattern in the housing market persists or expands, the approximately 16.5 trillion in real estate wealth held by households headed by those aged 55 or older will be significantly affected. We find little evidence that these upcoming changes have been incorporated into current prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Marijn A. Bolhuis & Judd N. L. Cramer, 2020. "The Millennial Boom, the Baby Bust, and the Housing Market," Papers 2003.11565, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2003.11565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.11565
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949–2016," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3469-3519.
    2. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2013. "The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2121-2168, October.
    3. Victor Couture & Jessie Handbury, 2017. "Urban Revival in America, 2000 to 2010," NBER Working Papers 24084, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Albert Saiz, 2010. "The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1253-1296.
    5. Davis, Morris A. & Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn, 2015. "Housing, Finance, and the Macroeconomy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 753-811, Elsevier.
    6. Mankiw, N. Gregory & Weil, David N., 1989. "The baby boom, the baby bust, and the housing market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 235-258, May.
    7. Hiller, Norbert & Lerbs, Oliver W., 2016. "Aging and urban house prices," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 276-291.
    8. Lerbs, Oliver & Hiller, Norbert, 2015. "Aging and Urban House Prices," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113136, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uwe Neumann & Lisa Taruttis, 2022. "Sorting in an urban housing market—is there a response to demographic change?," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(2), pages 111-139, August.
    2. Chelghoum, Amirouche & Boumimez, Fayçal & Alsamara, Mouyad, 2025. "Factors influencing asymmetries in Saudi Arabia's housing market," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    3. Heo, Ye Jin, 2022. "Population aging and house prices: Who are we calling old?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    4. William M Cheung, 2024. "Cointegrations in house price dynamics and ageing population risks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(2), pages 1-20, February.
    5. An, Galina & Becker, Charles & Cheng, Enoch, 2021. "Housing price appreciation and economic integration in a transition economy: Evidence from Kazakhstan," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Yihua Wang & Tomoko Kinugasa, 2022. "The relationship between demographic change and house price: Chinese evidence," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 43-65, February.
    7. Andrew A. Alola & Simplice A. Asongu & Uju V. Alola, 2019. "House prices and tourism development in Cyprus: A contemporary perspective," Working Papers 19/067, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    8. Krebs, Oliver & Pflüger, Michael, 2023. "On the road (again): Commuting and local employment elasticities in Germany," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Brausewetter, Lars & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2022. "Explaining Regional Disparities in Housing Prices across German Districts," IZA Discussion Papers 15199, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Andrew Adewale Alola & Uju Violet Alola, 2019. "The Dynamics of Tourism—Refugeeism on House Prices in Cyprus and Malta," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 521-536, May.
    11. Shihong Zeng & Xinwei Zhang & Xiaowei Wang & Guowang Zeng, 2019. "Population Aging, Household Savings and Asset Prices: A Study Based on Urban Commercial Housing Prices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-21, June.
    12. Sun, Tianyu & Chand, Satish & Sharpe, Keiran, 2018. "Effect of Aging on Housing Prices: A Perspective from an Overlapping Generation Model," MPRA Paper 89347, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Nam, Tong-yob & Oh, Seungjoon, 2021. "Non-recourse mortgage law and housing speculation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    14. Grossmann, Volker & Larin, Benjamin & Löfflad, Hans Torben & Steger, Thomas, 2021. "Distributional consequences of surging housing rents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    15. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng, 2018. "Macro Aspects of Housing," GRU Working Paper Series GRU_2018_016, City University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics and Finance, Global Research Unit.
    16. Greg Howard & Carl Liebersohn, 2019. "What Explains U.S. House Prices? Regional Income Divergence," 2019 Meeting Papers 1054, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Tang, 2020. "Why is the Hong Kong Housing Market Unaffordable? Some Stylized Facts and Estimations," Globalization Institute Working Papers 380, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    18. Carlos Garriga & Aaron Hedlund, 2019. "Crises in the Housing Market: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Lessons," Working Papers 2019-33, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    19. Sheida Teimouri & Joachim Zietz, 2025. "Housing prices and import competition," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 253-280, January.
    20. Kirill Borusyak & Peter Hull & Xavier Jaravel, 2022. "Quasi-Experimental Shift-Share Research Designs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 181-213.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2003.11565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.