There are scores of huge homes across the Southern U.S. that are simply sitting on the market, and sellers are settling for massive price cuts in order to move on with their lives.
What gives? Blame the Boomers.
According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, hordes of retirees with easy access to credit built their late-in-life dream homes across the Sunbelt in the early 2000s, only to discover that these huge, high-maintenance abodes didn’t exactly make for ideal living in their Golden Years.
But now, the style is out of date – and the price out of reach – for many of today’s home shoppers.
“These days, buyers of all ages eschew the large, ornate houses built in those years in favor of smaller, more-modern looking alternatives, and prefer walkable areas to living miles from retail,” the WSJ noted.
Areas with large retiree populations are feeling the pinch quite acutely, with the WSJ pointing to North Carolina’s Buncombe County; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Kiawah Island in South Carolina as examples of markets glutted with high-end homes that aren’t moving.
But things aren’t likely to turnaround any time soon.
The WSJ said the problem is expected to worsen in the 2020s as more Baby Boomers reach their 70s and 80s, an age where people typically exit homeownership.
