"As young buyers scrape together down payments, boomers are sitting on $82 trillion in wealth-more than twice what Gen X has and four times as much as millennials. New research shows the wealth gap has only widened since the 1980s, as older generations saw bigger gains in homeownership and stocks while younger people took on faster-growing mortgage debt. With boomers holding onto large homes and aging in place, younger buyers are struggling to break into a shrinking market."
"And over time, the generational wealth gap has only widened. Between 1983 and 2022, Americans 75 and older saw a sharp rise in their relative household wealth-and people aged 65 and up had more than twice the average wealth and a homeownership rate (nearly 17 percentage points higher) than those under 65, according to new research released last month from New York University. The report's author, economics professor Edward Wolff, called the rise in older generation wealth a "seismic shift.""
Baby boomers have accumulated an estimated $82 trillion in collective net worth, more than double Gen X's $42 trillion and about four times millennials' $16 trillion. Boomers control a majority share of stock holdings—around 54%, worth over $25 trillion—while millennials own roughly 8.2%, about $3.9 trillion. Since the early 1980s, wealth for older age cohorts has risen sharply; households aged 65 and up hold more than twice the average wealth and have a homeownership rate nearly 17 percentage points higher than those under 65. Younger buyers face increasing mortgage burdens and constrained housing access as boomers age in place.
Read at Fortune
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