Baby boomers dominate Sarasota-Manatee housing market with nearly half of all properties

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By Derek Gilliam, Sarasota Herald-Tribune,  posted January 21, 2024
 
The Sarasota-Manatee metro area has the eighth highest share of housing owned by baby boomers in the United States, with nearly half of all residential property owned by people between 58 and 76 years old, according to a report using U.S. Census Bureau demographic data.

Construction Coverage released its latest report on boomer dominant housing markets this week with Sarasota ranking in the top 10 of all metro areas in the country. In total, boomer households own 142,000 homes in the metro area that stretches from Bradenton to North Port.

The construction industry research group used the American Community Survey 2022 one-year estimates to compile its rankings, breaking each metro into a large, midsize and small category. Sarasota ranked second in midsize metros only behind South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach metro. Punta Gorda ranked second at 52.9%.

Of the top 10 metro areas, Sarasota had the most homes owned by boomers and the most boomers renting property with nearly 19,000 households in that age group in the two-county region.

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While nationally baby boomers make up just over 20% of the population, Sarasota-Manatee’s boomer population accounts for 31.7% of people living in the region. Construction Coverage put the total national share of residential property owned by boomers at 38%.

The report does not try to explain the dominance of the boomers’ share of the housing market, although part of it can be explained by that generation’s longer time in the workforce, their large size compared to Generation X and the economic turmoil that’s beset the millennial generation; which came into homebuying age toward the end of the Great Recession.

An unrelated report from TruckInfo.net may have another reason.

That report used the same American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau but looked at wage data compared to housing price and determined that home prices have increased significantly more than wages in recent years.

Florida home prices have increased 4.6 times faster than wages, with teachers faring even worse in wage growth compared to housing price.

“While software developers and lawyers have fared better than teachers and truck drivers, wages have failed to keep up across the board,” the trucking industry advocacy group noted in its report. “Nationally, teachers have seen home prices grow five times faster than their wages. Truck drivers have fared slightly better but still worse than the national average with home prices growing three times faster than their wages.”

The report said in prior decades the gap between home values compared to wages was 2.6 times, still more than inflation could account, but not nearly what has been experienced in the current housing market.

A reason for the drastic increase in home values in recent years was also not explored in the report.

Top 10 metros ranked by percentage of homeowners that are boomers:
The Villages, Florida, 61.0%
Punta Gorda, Florida, 52.9%
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Mrytle Beach, South Carolina, 52.8%
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Arizona, 52.6%
Barnstable Town, Massachusetts, 49.5%
Sebastian-Vero Beach, Florida, 49.5%
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, 48.5%
Salisbury, Maryland/Delaware, 48.4%
Flagstaff, Arizona, 47.7%

Other notable Florida metros included in the report were: Cape Coral-Fort Myers at 11 with 46.9%, Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormand Beach at 12 with 46.8%, Naples-Marco Island at 20 with 45.3%, Ocala at 21 with 45.3%, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville at 22 with 45.2%, Port St. Lucie at 23 with 45.0%, Panama City at 32 with 42.7%, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at 77 with 40.0%, Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin at 98 with 39.1%, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at 107 with 38.9%, Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent at 112 with 38.6%, Jacksonville at 121 with 38.3%, Lakeland Winter Haven at 147 with 37.3% and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford at 171 with 36.4%.

There’s no single source for when a generation begins or ends, but these are the dates commonly used for the generations, according to Parents.com.

Greatest Generation: 1901 to 1927
Silent Generation: 1928 to 1945
Baby Boomers: 1945 to 1964
Generation X: 1965 to 1980
Millennials: 1981 to 1996
Generation Z or Zoomers: 1997 to 2010
Generation Alpha: 2010 to 2024

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3 Big Mistakes Buyers make:

  1. 1. NOT KNOWING THE NEIGHBORHOOD...ContinuedReal estate always has been and always will be a local business. Know your neighborhood is a cardinal rule in this business. A real estate professional knows what is going on in their local market area. Hire a knowledge, local professional. When we see folks wandering around with a notebook and a list of questions, we know they are the most likely to make a costly mistake. A PROFESSIONAL Realtor, (please note the word professional), can spend 15 minutes listening to your needs and wants, and probably rule out 90% of the local market options, and focus your attention, on the 3 or 4 or 5 communities that will meet your needs, and make sense from both a financial and lifestyle point of view. I am amazed at how many people from out of State, go it alone, end up buying in the wrong community, and come to regret it. I meet people like this everyday, and everyone single one of them will say to me: “I wish we had met you first.”
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4 Big Mistakes Investors make:
  1. INCOME... ContinuedThe rental income does not justify the $/sq. ft. purchase price.
  2. EXPENSES... Continued The monthly expenses are too high, relative to the property type and rental income produced.
  3. CAP RATE... Continued The capitalization rate is too low to justify the investment.
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