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Save Me A Cardboard Box. A Big One

Surprise! Boomers are putting off selling their homes. That’s the startling news to come out of a Coldwell Banker Real Estate survey. Eighty-seven percent of the 1,300 agents surveyed said that boomers were putting home sales on the back burner.

Older boomers want to get out of their houses to get something smaller and more affordable. Forty-nine percent of the agents surveyed indicated that their boomer clients wanted a simpler lifestyle. Twenty-eight percent reported that their clients chief motive for downsizing was to save money.

So just when they need to economize the most, they’re stuck in a quicksand housing market. Younger boomers are not any better off. They want to upsize and buy the bigger houses that older boomers would like to sell, but the iffy economy has put them in the same stall mode as the more senior boomers.

Makes you think the best strategy might be to rent your current home out and live in the basement. Alternatively, you can hit the road in your RV while the renters enjoy your roomy abode. Of course, that still leaves you looking for renters, but how hard can that be? There must be loads of people who have already lost their homes and will never qualify for a mortgage again -- ever.

Is there something just sad and depressing about this whole state of affairs? Yes. But we just have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and find a nice 2011 vintage refrigerator box in mint condition. Look outside a millionaire’s home on trash collection day. They’re always buying new refrigerators when the old ones get dirty. Not that I’m criticizing the 1 percent. That would be class warfare.

If your parents lived through the great depression, you’ve heard all the stories about how things were tough and sacrifices had to be made. Now you can tell your children the same stories, passing along pearls of wisdom to the next generation. See? It’s not all bad.

Jay Harrison is a graphic designer and writer whose work can be seen at DesignConcept. He's written a mystery novel, which therefore makes him a pre-published author.