When Millennials Battle Boomers Over Housing

The Baby Boomer/Millennial housing mismatch is well known: As Boomers age, an upcoming glut of suburban and exurban homes will stand empty and unwanted, leaving both generations at a loss. Downsizing empty-nesters won’t find buyers, because Millennials want smaller homes or condos in or nearer to the city, not big four-bedroom Colonials with yards. And younger adults won’t be able to afford such single-family abodes because urban housing has become too pricey.

There’s another angle to this story, and it implicates Boomers in the priciness. Randy Shaw, homeless advocate and director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, has penned a new book, Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America, that examines how urban Boomer homeowners, in their quest to fend off “density” (and apartment renters) in their neighborhoods, have consistently—and incredibly successfully—blocked the construction of affordable housing. Such NIMBYism has hindered the building of more housing in areas desirable to Millennials, keeping stock low, prices high, and younger, less-affluent residents—as well as the working and middle classes more broadly—out.