The ‘Silver Tsunami’ Could Solve the Inventory Problem—and Create a Demand Problem

The "silver tsunami" may finally reach America's shores, bringing enough homes to ease its long-running inventory shortage and expose an entirely new problem in its place.Between 2026 and 2036, an estimated 13.9 million homes currently occupied by baby boomers and the Silent Generation will be released from older owner-occupancy, according to the Generational Housing Succession report from Realtor.com® released on Monday.The annual pace is projected to rise from roughly 1.27 million homes in 2027 to 1.52 million by 2036. And if just 45% of the homes projected to be released in 2027 became for-sale listings, that alone would be enough to restore annual listings to pre-pandemic levels, all else being equal, the report found.It’s good news for the multitudes of house hunters who have spent the past few years on the sidelines as scarce listings limited their options and helped keep prices elevated. But restoring the number of homes for sale does not necessarily restore a balanced—or affordable—market.“We believe the softness will be real, though its effects will be uneven across segments and markets, not a uniform, nationwide correction,” Jiayi Xu, senior economist at Realtor.com, writ...