Housing shortfall, costs and affordability

[danbrotherston]

Why the f*ck would I sell? I never bought my house as an investment. I bought it to live in. I updated it over the years to make it the perfect house to live in as long as possible. I have the perfect lot, the perfect size house and the perfect location. I take care of my health so that I hopefully will die living here which will hopefully not be for some time. Everything has been updated or replaced. Yes the value is substantially more than what I paid but it was never about the investment. I saved my entire life to be able to afford a comfortable retirement.

I'm in no way blaming you (and, yes, I know you were responding to ac3r). However, the fact that many in your cohort are keeping your homes much longer than your parents did does affect housing availability, basically we would need additional housing even without population growth.

What bravado says is on point though. Even if empty nest boomers wanted to downsize from their family sized home, they generally have limited options to do so and those options usually involve leaving their neighbourhood at least. (and that limitation is largely of their own making)