Yahoo Finance Meredith Whitney's housing advice: Millennials wait, boomers sell
One of the biggest themes in 2023 was the struggle in the housing market. High mortgage rates made it more difficult for people to buy homes and people who had homes didn't want to sell them in fear of losing their low mortgage rate. A lack of existing home inventory plagued the market, though homebuilders were able to take advantage. Meredith Whitney LLC Founder Meredith Whitney, who is known for correctly predicting the 2008 financial crisis, tells Yahoo Finance that as more baby boomers retire and look to downsize, more inventory should come onto the market.
Whitney says that since most home mortgages are originated by institutions outside of banks, they can't really ease their lending standards to make housing more affordable. Whitney notes that there are government programs that can help homebuyers, but she cautions that could cause servicing costs to rise. Whitney thinks that, ultimately, "you're going to have more seniors, the silver tsunami, selling and there are fewer buyers so the give is going to be lower home prices... advice to millennials, that advice is to wait. Advice to boomers is sell... the sooner you sell the higher price you capture. The longer you wait, the lower price you buy at. So, I think it's a cat and mouse game."
Click here to watch the full interview with Meredith Whitney.
For more Yahoo Finance housing coverage:
2024 home buying season will be better than 2023: Economist
Can homebuilder stocks defy the odds in 2024?
Housing market has looked 'bubblicious': Economist
Top housing markets for 2024: Realtor.com
Video Transcript
BRAD SMITH: Where do you envision that banks are going to have to create, within their own systems and their own models, even more leniency when they're evaluating potential home buyers considering that for home buyers now? Especially millennial home buyers, the costs are vastly different that they're trying to move through, whether that be just coming off the cost of education, whether that be trying to get out of one city into another?
Where is there going to have to be some type of malleability in what's historically been a model that they could just lean on and say, yeah, we'll guarantee that we're going to back you for this house?
MEREDITH WHITNEY: Well, 70% of mortgages are outside of the banks now so that since the great financial crisis. So you're really dealing with like a Rocket Mortgage or other independent non-bank mortgage companies for that, but they're not going to have the leeway to do that, it's really going to come or could come from government programs.
And you have a lot of government programs whereby you can put very little down for a down payment. It's just the servicing that becomes expensive. But if you lower the overall-- lower the overall home price, the serviceability becomes more affordable. That's what I think is invariably going to happen because you're going to have more seniors, the silver tsunami selling, and there are fewer buyers, so the give is going to be lower home prices.
And just to tack on to your question from your prior guest, advice to millennials, that advice is to wait, advice to boomers is sell, right? The sooner you sell, the higher price you capture. The longer you wait, the lower price you buy at. So I think it's a cat and mouse game.
