Brace for it: aging boomer homeowners

We, all of us homeowners, are aging. So before millennials take over homebuilding and remodeling — and they will eventually, along with everything else — let’s get something straight:

Not only are boomers aging, but as we do, more of us intend to age in place.

If we buy one more house, it’ll be by a builder or from a seller who knows necessities, as well as amenities: wider doors and hallways, nonslip floors, ramps, adaptable counters and appliances and bathroom fixtures, grab bars and all that.

And if we don’t buy again, we’ll be looking for remodelers and neighborhoods and municipalities who know what agingin-place means.

Some of us will need help, whether private or public.

This means you, millennials, since census projections show you will outnumber us something like 73 million to 72 million in 2019.

Aging, relentless aging, jumped out at me from the 2018 State of the Nation’s Housing report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, released Tuesday. It also looks at construction, costs, homeownership rates, household income and debt, affordability and race and other demographics.

Some numbers and trends:

• The median age of homeowners increased from 50 in 1990 to 56 in 2016, while the median age of all households rose from 45 to 52. The older the household, the higher the homeownership rate.

• The number of homeowners under 45 was lower in 2016 than in 1990, while the number over 45 was higher.

• Between 1990 and 2016, aging boomers pushed up the number of homeowners in their 50s by 75 percent and the number in their 60s by 63 percent.

• The share of homeowners 65 and over increased from one in four in 1990 to one in three in 2016.

Go here for the report: http:// www.jchs.harvard.edu/statenations-housing-2018.

Here’s the kicker for the housing market, as well as public policy. According to the AARP, 88 percent of people 65 and over want to remain in their

homes as they age.

The Harvard study says that will bring two big repercussions:

“First, assuming that the baby boomers follow through on their intentions to age in place, the inventory of houses for sale will depend even more heavily on additions to supply over the next two decades. Second, aging-related difficulty with activities of daily living may prompt many older homeowners to modify their homes to improve accessibility, generating sizable growth in the remodeling market.”

Despite the nearly imminent demographic takeover by millennials, 65- to 74-year-olds, who have not historically added much to demand for new housing, are the fastest-growing age group.

“But given the size of the baby-boom generation,” the study says, “households headed by persons age 65 and over will continue to grow at an unprecedented pace in the next decade, increasing the presence of older households in both the homeowner and rental markets.

“Since older households own many of the nation’s existing homes, they will also drive strong growth in spending on improvements and repairs — and, increasingly, home modifications that ensure their ability to age safely in place.”

However, limited income and wealth are real obstacles.

Challenges for the aging, especially where transportation, support services and other needs are lacking, will come at huge social cost, one way or another — as with most things, lesser if met head on, greater if not.

By all accounts, it costs society much more for aging people to go to nursing homes, living centers and other institutions than it does to help them stay in their homes.

The AARP already is helping get the country to think differently about this, from local zoning changes to integration of public health and housing services.

Builders, remodelers, public officials, the AARP will grow as a market and political force in the coming, graying years. Boomer homeowners, to borrow Farmers Insurance’s clever line, “know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”