Millennials, boomers part of 'triple threat' driving up housing prices: Real estate expert
Pretium CEO says homebuyer costs will ‘continue’ to surge due to conflicting Baby Boomer, millennial demand on top of low supply
Pretium founder and CEO Don Mullen signals the U.S. consumer is pushing back against inflation and higher costs in the housing market.
Baby boomers and millennials are part of a "triple threat" driving up prices in the housing market, according to the founder and executive of America’s largest owner of single-family homes.
"There’s a huge amount of inventory stuck in baby boomers," Pretium CEO Don Mullen told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday.
"And as a result," he added, "the combination of the bulge of millennials coming through the system, people choosing to age in place, even more so because of COVID, and pulling forward of demand... on top of low construction for a decade, is forcing all prices up and will continue."
Don Mullen, CEO of America's largest firm owning single-family homes, warns the housing market faces a "triple threat" problem coupled with low supply, and could create a "crisis of affordable housing" on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday, May 18, 2022 … (Getty Images)
Mullen noted that he founded Pretium in 2012 when expectations were that millennials, as they aged, would want to form households in a "classic," single-family home. Instead, demographic changes took hold.
CENTURY 21 CEO WARNS U.S. DIDN'T ‘BUILD ENOUGH HOMES’ FOR THIS ‘PENT-UP’ DEMAND
"When you look at the numbers with millennials forming households and aging in place, the average age of a person moving out of their single-family home used to be 60, 20 years ago," the CEO said. "It's now 74."
He believes that the only solution to bringing down soaring housing costs is to lower the number of buyers.
Pretium founder and CEO Don Mullen says the U.S. spent a decade underbuilding new homes, which is forcing all prices higher.
"The only answer in the near term to increased housing prices is a reduction in the people trying to buy," he said.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Mullen’s comments come on the heels of the release of the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for May, which revealed that builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes fell eight points to 69 -- the fifth straight month that builder sentiment has declined and the lowest reading since June 2020.