A $48T “Structural Shift” to the Housing Market is Only Just Beginning

On The Market

BiggerPockets

News, Business, Education, Investing

4.8 • 859 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A “structural shift” is happening in the housing market—one that will permanently change how home prices appreciate. We could be experiencing the last era of steady, rising home prices as we enter into a new reality—a reality without Baby Boomers owning real estate. For years, a “silver tsunami” has been predicted to “crash” the housing market. With Baby Boomers downsizing, aging in place, and passing away, the inevitable wave of inventory was supposed to hit the housing market with fury—but it hasn’t happened, at least not yet. With the average Baby Boomer now in their 70s, surely we should start to see inventory fly on the market…right? Today, we’re getting into when (and if) the silver tsunami will hit, why the end of the Baby Boomer generation could change the home price growth trajectory permanently, and what will unfold in the 2030s (and beyond) that could cause serious headwinds in the housing market. But if it all comes true, investors will have the opportunity of a lifetime to get something many have assumed is gone—cash flow. In This Episode We Cover The “silver tsunami” explained, and why it hasn’t crashed the housing market Inheritance begins to peak—how many heirs will keep vs. sell their parents’ homes? The “structural shift” that could change home price appreciation forever Just how much of the housing market Baby Boomers own (it’s a LOT) The return of cash flow? Why real estate investors will get another opportunity to buy And So Much More! Links from the Show Join the Future of Real Estate Investing with Fundrise Join BiggerPockets for FREE Join us at the BiggerPockets Conference October 2-4 in Orlando. Buy tickets Sign Up for the On the Market Newsletter Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area Dave's BiggerPockets Profile On the Market 403 - You Have Until 2031: What Happens When Population Goes Negative? On the Market 404 - 75,000 “Relistings” Could Hit the Market, But Inventory WON’T Explode? On the Market 408 - Melody Wright’s Honest Take On the “Worse Than 2008” Crash Claim Real Estate by the Numbers Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/on-the-market-409. Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	$48 trillion of real estate could be changing hands soon as baby boomers age and bring their
0:06.9	massive inventory of property to the market. Some have called this impending demographic shift,
0:13.0	the silver tsunami, and have claimed it will cause a crash in the housing market unlike
0:18.3	anything we've ever seen in the past. But the same people
0:23.1	have been saying this for 10 plus years, and clearly it hasn't happened. But the situation is
0:29.5	changing. Boomers are now, on average, in their 70s, and the generational shift of property and
0:36.0	wealth is already starting to happen.
0:38.1	We can see it in the data.
0:39.9	So will that lead to this long predicted crash?
0:43.3	Will the market shrug it off like it has for the last decade?
0:47.0	Today and On the Market, we'll find out.
0:53.7	Hey, everyone, welcome to On the Market.
0:56.1	I'm Dave Meyer, chief investment officer at Bigger Pockets.
0:59.8	Today on the show, we're addressing a demographic issue facing the housing market as
1:05.2	baby boomers, once the biggest generation in the country, age, and give up the very
1:10.6	substantial portion of the housing market that they own in the country, age, and give up the very substantial portion of the
1:13.1	housing market that they own in the United States, either because they're choosing to rent,
1:18.6	they go into assisted living, or they pass away. And this shift, which I should say is
1:24.4	completely inevitable, given the demographics and the sad realities of mortality,
1:30.7	this shift is going to hit the housing market in a way that aging and people getting older
1:35.7	doesn't normally hit the housing market. It doesn't normally create these structural shifts,
1:41.3	but this one probably will. And that is just because of the sheer quantity of housing stock that boomers own.
	...

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