Good morning, NREB readers.

As always, we're here to keep real estate professionals informed while cutting out the fluff. Let's get right into it.

There is an unusual concentration of power in today's housing market.

Baby Boomers—Americans roughly ages 61 through 79 in the National Association of REALTORS®' latest generational report—accounted for:

42% of recent home buyers.

And:

55% of recent home sellers.

No other generation came close on either side.

Millennials accounted for 26% of buyers.

Generation X made up 25%.

Gen Z represented just 4%.

Boomers, meanwhile, were not merely the largest buyer generation.

They were an outright majority of sellers.

That matters because this generation enters the housing market from a very different financial position than many of the households trying to buy their first home.

They have had decades to accumulate housing equity.

Many own their homes outright or carry relatively small mortgage balances.

Some can sell one property and bring a substantial amount of cash into the next purchase.

And an unusually large share can avoid mortgage financing altogether.

In a housing market where affordability is keeping younger households on the sidelines, those advantages are increasingly shaping who is actually able to transact.

Last week, we looked at a housing market where:

25.2 million adults under 35 live with their parents,

the median first-time buyer has reached age 40,

and the typical renter holds only a fraction of the cash represented by the median recent down payment.

This week's story begins at the opposite end of the housing-wealth spectrum.

The first-time buyer is trying to get onto the ladder.

The typical Boomer has had decades to climb it.

That does not mean every older homeowner is wealthy.

It does not mean every Boomer owns a valuable property free and clear.

And it certainly does not mean older households are unaffected by housing costs.

But at the population level, the distinction is substantial.

NAR's latest report describes older buyers as much more likely to fund purchases with proceeds from a previous home, while younger buyers depend more heavily on savings and outside help.

That creates two very different experiences inside the same housing market.

One household asks:

Another asks:

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The clearest evidence of that financial flexibility is how Boomers are purchasing.

Among Younger Boomers ages 61–70, 39% bought entirely with cash.

Among Older Boomers ages 71–79, the share was 46%.

And among Boomers who did finance their purchase, more than half used proceeds from the sale of a previous home toward the down payment.

That creates advantages that go well beyond avoiding a mortgage payment.

A cash buyer does not care whether this week's mortgage rate moved from 6.5% to 6.8%.

Their qualification is not threatened because bond yields jumped.

They are not calculating whether another eighth of a percentage point pushes the monthly payment beyond their budget.

They may also have greater flexibility around appraisal and financing timelines, depending on the terms of the transaction.

That does not automatically make a cash offer better for every seller.

Price, contingencies, timing, certainty, and the seller's priorities all still matter.

But it does make an older, equity-rich buyer less exposed to one of the biggest forces suppressing housing demand today:

the cost of borrowing money.

Housing equity is not the same thing as cash sitting in a checking account.

A homeowner usually has to sell, borrow against the property, or otherwise access that equity before it can be spent.

But when someone does sell, years of appreciation and mortgage paydown can create substantial purchasing power.

That gives older homeowners options.

They may be able to put more money down.

They may be able to purchase entirely with cash.

They may be less dependent on selling at the absolute highest possible price in order to complete the next purchase.

They may be able to buy before or after selling depending on their broader finances.

And they may simply have a wider range of housing choices because the next transaction is being supported by wealth accumulated in the previous one.

This is one reason today's housing market can feel so contradictory.

Affordability is historically difficult.

First-time participation is historically weak.

And yet millions of transactions still occur.

The households completing them are increasingly not starting from zero.

Another thing stands out in NAR's data:

Older buyers often move for reasons that have very little to do with short-term market timing.

Among Older Boomers, 31% said proximity to friends and family was a reason for their purchase.

Among Younger Boomers, it was 23%.

Retirement also appears in the decision-making, with 15% of Younger Boomers reporting retirement as a reason for buying.

Senior-oriented housing becomes more common with age as well: 13% of Younger Boomers and 23% of Older Boomers purchased in senior-related housing.

Those motivations matter because life circumstances do not always wait for the perfect mortgage rate.

Someone may want to live near grandchildren.

Someone may be retiring to another state.

Someone may want a community with different amenities.

Someone may no longer need the location that made sense during their working years.

Someone may need a home that functions better for the next stage of life.

A 35-year-old renter can decide to wait another year for buying conditions to improve.

A 72-year-old moving closer to family may view the decision very differently.

Housing is financial.

It is also personal.

The danger of generational statistics is that they can become stereotypes.

Boomer seller equals downsizer.

Millennial equals first-time buyer.

Gen Z equals renter.

Real clients are much messier than that.

The Boomer category itself spans nearly two decades.

A 61-year-old and a 79-year-old may have completely different:

careers,

health considerations,

family structures,

housing needs,

finances,

and plans for the next 20 years.

One may still be working full time.

Another may have been retired for more than a decade.

One may want less property.

Another may be moving closer to family and need more room when grandchildren visit.

One may be selling a mortgage-free house.

Another may have refinanced recently or carry substantial debt.

Generational data are useful because they reveal broad market forces.

They are poor substitutes for asking the client what they actually want.

The 55% seller share deserves particular attention.

When more than half of sellers come from one generation, the housing decisions of that group have implications for inventory itself.

Boomers own a large portion of the existing housing stock.

When they stay put, those homes stay off the market.

When they move, properties accumulated over decades return to circulation.

Some of those houses sit in established neighborhoods where little new construction is possible.

Some are the larger homes younger families would like to move into.

Some are older properties that have been renovated repeatedly.

Some may need work after long ownership.

And some have not been offered for sale in many years.

That makes Boomer mobility an inventory story as much as a demographic one.

The industry spends enormous amounts of time watching new construction.

It should also pay attention to when existing owners decide the home they already have no longer fits the life they want.

Over the last several years, one of the major constraints on inventory has been the mortgage-rate lock-in effect.

Millions of homeowners hold mortgages far below today's rates.

Selling means potentially giving up cheap financing and replacing it with something much more expensive.

That can discourage a move.

But the effect is not identical across generations.

An owner with a large mortgage balance at 3% may feel strongly locked in.

An older homeowner who owns outright is not locked into a mortgage rate at all.

Someone selling a highly appreciated home and buying the next property mostly or entirely with equity may also care less about prevailing financing costs.

That helps explain why older households can remain active even when mortgage rates suppress demand elsewhere.

The same market condition that blocks one household may be little more than background noise to another.

For agents, the biggest practical takeaway is not:

It is:

An equity-rich seller may prioritize certainty over squeezing out the final dollar.

Another may care deeply about maximizing proceeds because those proceeds fund retirement.

One may need months before moving.

Another may want a clean, fast transition.

One may already own the next home.

Another may need the sale to make the next purchase possible.

One may be moving across town.

Another may be moving across the country to be near family.

The demographic category does not answer those questions.

But knowing how much of today's market is being driven by older owners should remind agents to ask them.

This may be the most important thing the generational data reveal.

Today's housing market is increasingly divided between people who already hold housing wealth and people trying to create it for the first time.

Last week, the first-time side looked like:

older entry ages,

delayed household formation,

thin liquid savings,

and fewer buyers getting through the door.

This week begins with the other side:

decades of ownership,

accumulated equity,

high cash-purchase rates,

and more flexibility around financing.

Neither group describes every household.

But the contrast helps explain a housing market that can remain expensive while still producing active buyers.

The market has not stopped moving.

The people best positioned to move have changed.

Nationally, Boomers account for 55% of sellers.

Your local market may be very different.

A new suburban development may have younger sellers who purchased only a few years ago.

An established neighborhood may be dominated by owners who have been there for decades.

A retirement destination may have older buyers arriving and older sellers leaving simultaneously.

A military market may turn over much faster.

That local composition matters.

Look at:

how long owners in your farm area have held their homes,

how much equity they are likely to have accumulated,

whether properties are owned free and clear,

what ages dominate your seller pipeline,

and what life events are actually driving moves.

The national data tell us older owners are controlling an enormous share of today's inventory.

Your market tells you what those owners are likely to do next.

The stereotype is easy:

Baby Boomers own houses.

Eventually, they sell them.

Then they downsize.

The actual housing behavior is more complicated.

They are the largest generation of buyers and sellers.

A huge share buys with cash.

Many use equity from the home they just sold.

Family, retirement, lifestyle, and housing needs all influence where they move.

And because they control so much existing housing, their decisions can affect inventory far beyond their own transaction.

On Wednesday, we'll look at another part of this story:

how long today's homeowner actually stays in one property—and what happens when years of ownership turn into decades.

For now, the number to remember is 55%.

More than half of recent sellers came from one generation.

And that same generation represented 42% of buyers on the other side.

In a housing market obsessed with the buyer who cannot afford to move, it is worth paying attention to the household that can.

Because right now, older owners with equity are doing a remarkable amount of the moving.

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Generational shares and characteristics above come from NAR's 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends research and describe recent survey respondents at the population level. They should not be used to infer an individual client's finances, motivations, needs, or housing preferences based solely on age.