A wave of new homes for sale will hit the Bay Area market but it will be a while before buyers can take advantage of the new stock, according to a report from Zillow.
In what has been dubbed the "silver tsunami," residents in the Baby Boomer generation will be downsizing or moving away in the years to come, thus boosting the supply of housing across the Bay Area.
The bad news is millennials might have to wait a decade or two to see the wave of new homes enter the market.
Two decades ago, Linda Safir and her husband bought a home in the East Oakland hills for $800,000. They raised three children in the home, but they're all grown now and moved out.
Safir said she and her husband are ready to leave, and that means big bucks for realtors and opportunity for desperate buyers.
"We have a 3,600-square-foot home and two people," Safir said. "It was a great house to raise kids, it was the best. But it’s a lot of work."
Safir and her husband plan to move to a smaller home in Washington, D.C. Their Oakland house is on the market for a little less than $2 million.
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"We have been absolutely astonished at the amount of interest in our home," Safir said.
The Zillow report says the Bay Area market will start to see a steady increase in inventory. But some experts don’t expect home prices to take a dip.
"There is a potential for a wave of inventory coming," said Aman Daro, CEO of Red Oak Realty. "If we had a flood of inventory, we had a higher supply, I think the demand would keep up with it. The fact is there’s pent-up demand."
Zillow projects a 25% turnover in Bay Area home ownership by the year 2037.
