Why ‘Silver Tsunami’ May Not Solve Housing Crisis
Boomers will release millions of homes in the housing market in the next 10 years. They might not be what buyers are looking for.
The impending "silver tsunami" of older Americans downsizing, selling, or gifting their homes to family members may alleviate some of the country's housing shortage, but it will also bring about new challenges, according to experts. By the end of the next decade, approximately 13.9 million homes now owned by baby boomers and the Silent Generation will be up for grabs, according to Realtor.com's latest Generational Housing Succession report.
If even 45 percent of the roughly 1.27 million homes anticipated to be released next year were put onto the market, it would be enough to return annual for-sale listings to pre-pandemic levels, according to researchers.
Only a select number of states, primarily in the South, have managed to achieve this increased turnover over the past few years, which could be a potential solution to the current housing gap. Inherited homes accounted for a record 7 percent of all U.S. property transfers in the 12 months leading up to August 2025, totaling 340,000 properties. Nearly 60 percent of those sellers were 60 or older.
While the generational succession is not a new occurrence, its scale will be 33.7 percent larger than in the previous decade. This release of real estate has already begun, albeit gradually. Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, noted that the impact will vary significantly by region and segment, with some areas facing a heightened risk of housing oversupply due to demographic factors and limited family formation among younger generations.
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