A massive impending wealth transfer will send trillions of dollars in home equity from Baby Boomers to their children, according to a new report from Freddie Mac.
The US government-sponsored mortgage loan corporation says $17 trillion of home equity is about to be handed over to the children of those born before 1964.
-->Citing data from the Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac reports that Boomers hold 50 of all home equity in the United States, which amounts to $17.3 trillion as of Q2 2024.
About 75 of the Boomers are planning to leave their current home or the proceeds of its sale to their children or family members after they pass on.
Freddie Mac reports that 83 of surveyed homeowners who currently have or used to have a fixed-rate mortgage “overwhelmingly agree” that it has allowed them to “steadily build wealth over time,” and only 9 of Boomers say they are planning to tap into their home equity to fund their retirement.
Half of all Boomer homeowners in the US already own their home outright and more than half of those still paying it off have mortgage rates below 4.
In the last 50 years, the home price to median household income ratio has more than doubled, from 3.65 in 1974 to 7.25 at the end of 2024, currently exceeding the “housing bubble” of 2006.
Says Sonu Mittal, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president and head of its single-family acquisitions division,
“Clearly the Baby Boomer generation has benefited from our country’s unique housing finance system, and it is imperative that we ensure this system remains in place to help Boomers and the many generations that follow.”
