Americans are holding on to their homes twice as long as they did 20 years ago, with older generations finding fewer motivations to sell and move, according to a new report.
The average US homeowner has spent just short of 12 years in their home, up from 6½ years two decades ago, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. While the time homeowners stay put has fallen from the 2020 peak of almost 14 years, many incentives motivating folks to move have since flattened.
Other economic indicators suggest as much: US existing home sales hit a 30-year low last year, according to the National Association of Realtors, as homeowners remained locked in by their lower mortgage rates.
The trend was most prevalent among baby boomers, many of whom are retiring as both rates and home prices remain elevated. The lock-in effect is geographically widespread, with just a handful of affordable metros seeing homes change hands after barely seven years.
"The lock-in effect is … a significant issue among people who say they want to stay in their house longer than they expected," Mark Palim, vice president and deputy chief economist at Fannie Mae, told Yahoo Finance. "We’re not sure that there’s a magical inflection point; we think it’s more than passage of time and rates themselves."
Nearly half of boomers live in homes 20 years
Most baby boomers haven’t moved for decades, and that won't change anytime soon.
Nearly 40% of those born between 1946 and 1964 have lived in their homes for at least 20 years. Another 16% have been in their properties for 10 to 19 years, Redfin found.
For Gen Xers, more than one-third have lived in the same home for at least 10 years.
By comparison, millennials stayed in their homes for shorter periods, largely because they were more likely to switch jobs or have growing families than older generations.
According to Redfin, less than 7% of millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996 — have lived in their home for 10 years or longer, and 30% have lived in their home less than five years.
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