A boomer blasts back
So who's to blame for the housing mess?
Now, to be fair, I want to give boomers a chance to defend their generation's honor - and better yet, blame all those irksome Gen Xers and Gen Yers for all our current housing market woes.
To get things rolling, I will start off with a comment by ISchmidlapp. He contends the younger couples in his town have been the ones leveraging to buy the McMansions, all under the guise of doing right by their children. By contrast, the boomers in his neighborhood were all happy to buy and fix up 1950s capes and ranches.
So without further ado, one boomer's retort.
In my old neighborhood, the Boomers were happy to live in smaller 3-BR houses built in the 1950s, renovating while they lived there, while the younger couples wanted to move to the mini-mansions of South Natick or Dover, for instance. One young couple across the street said it was impossible to raise 2 kids in such a house, ignoring the fact that generations of people had done so. Nope, the semi-finished basement wasn't a good enough playroom for what we call "MyBaby MyBaby Syndrome," and there wasn't enough room for "real" entertaining - whatever that might be. So I'm not sure it's a Boomer phenomenon, given two recent generations that have been brought up with a sense of entitlement that boggles the mind. (I want, therefore I deserve.) These are the people who, as kids, who got prizes for being able to breathe or stand upright at a competition of any sort. Of course, this is as broad and ridiculous a generalization as the one that blames Boomers for everything, but there IS another point of view.) Entitlement, thy name is GenX and GenY.
