Baby boomers are aging in place and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on home renovations.

Baby boomers make up more than a third of all homeowners, and more than half don’t even have a mortgage, Eric Finnigan, vice president of demographics at John Burns Research and Consulting, said previously. Fortune— a figure that still holds true today. So in our current environment, where mortgage rates have skyrocketed from all-time lows throughout the pandemic to their more than two-decade high in October 2023, no longer having a mortgage is like hitting the mother lode. That’s part of the reason baby boomers aren’t moving – because why not give up a mortgage rate, or a significantly lower rate, for a rate that’s around 7.5% today?

On the other hand, millennials, many of whom haven’t even purchased their first home, are looking at a much different housing market than before the pandemic began: the salary needed to buy a first home has nearly doubled, the cost of owning a home is the highest on record, and low inventory levels are far more dire.

And baby boomers are occupying particularly large homes that millennials starting families need. A 2024 Redfin analysis of baby boomers found in empty nesters own 28% of the nation’s largest homes, those with three or more bedrooms; and millennials with children own only 14%. As mentioned previously, there is simply no financial incentive for the first groups to abandon their homes. But it was not always this way. “

The landscape has transformed over the past decade: 10 years ago, young families were just as likely as empty nesters to own large homes,” the analysis reads.

Baby boomers are aging in place and have no reason to sell their homes

In recent years, existing home sales have fallen to their lowest levels in nearly three decades; no one was selling or buying their house. And aside from the fact that there’s no financial incentive to sell, baby boomers are aging in place because they can. In doing so, they renovate and upgrade their current homes, not only for safety reasons, but also to live comfortably and luxuriously, Finnigan previously explained.

For some baby boomers, the idea of ​​renovating their family home – even though it’s probably too big for their empty nester – is far more appealing than moving. Additionally, there is a housing crisis for baby boomers trying to move due to a lack of retirement homes. Many of them have no plans to move, even if they have lived in their current home for more than a decade.

And some baby boomers have spent tens of thousands of dollars — and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars — on home renovations to make their homes more modern, more comfortable and safer to grow old in. Brenda Edwards and her husband, a California couple in their seventies, spent more than $100,000 on home renovations so they could install a wheelchair in case they needed one.

“We felt comfortable,” Edwards told the Associated Press in 2024 on why they wanted to stay instead of moving. “We have a pool. We have a spa. We put a lot of love and effort into this yard. We want to stay.” Plus, “it would be too difficult to buy anything else” since their house was almost fully paid for, she said.

Many baby boomer homeowners are “choosing to improve their current home for the long term,” said Marine Sargsyan, chief economist at home renovation and design site Houzz. Fortune, rather than facing higher mortgage rates: so much so that baby boomers are leading renovation activity across all generations, according to the site’s Houzz & Home 2024 study.

“We’re seeing a growing trend toward universal design elements in kitchens and bathrooms, especially as homeowners prepare their homes to age in place,” Sargsyan said. “Changes include wheelchair-accessible pathways, additional lighting, sliding cabinets, rounded countertops, non-slip flooring and grab bars. »

Leaf Home also reports seeing an increase in demand for walk-in showers and bathtubs as well as stair lifts, making homes more accessible to aging generations. “We expect to see an increase in baby boomers’ desire to make improvements to keep their homes comfortable and safe,” said Nina George, former chief growth officer at Leaf Home. Fortune.

But some boomers are selling and some millennials are buying homes. Millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation of home buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“The generational tug-of-war between millennials and baby boomers continued this year, with millennials rebounding to capture the largest share of home buyers,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research, alongside a recent report on generational trends.

Versions of this story were published on Fortune.com on June 6, 2024 and March 9, 2025.