I have told my kids for ten years that I will sell the house when it gets too big.

It got too big the year the last one moved out. I am still in it. So is the furniture nobody wants.

I am in very large company on this one, it turns out.

Households headed by someone 70 or older now hold 27.3% of the value of owner-occupied homes in America. That is about $13.6 trillion.

Owner-occupied means the house the family lives in, not a rental. In 1989, when the Fed’s records begin, the 70-plus share was 14.6%.

That number reaches your own street. It decides who moves in next door, and when.

Most of the cohort means to stay. In AARP’s 2024 survey, 75% of adults 50 and older said they want to remain in their current home as they age.

Staying in your own house as you get older has a name in the trade. Aging in place.

So the big house comes off the market for a decade or two, and sometimes for good.

Put the oldest owners beside the youngest and the gap is plain.

27.3%

of owner-occupied home value held by households 70 and older, June 2026

 

12.3%

held by households under 40

In 1989 the under-40 share was 22%. The two groups have traded places.

The stay-put decision builds a second economy. A house that does not sell still has to change.

The stairs get a rail. The tub becomes a walk-in shower. The doorway widens for a walker.

Very few homes are ready for that today. AARP says fewer than 1% of single-family homes are fully wheelchair accessible. Fewer than 4% can be easily modified for someone who has trouble getting around.

So the money that would have paid a moving van and an agent goes to a remodeler. The shortage on one side becomes a work order on the other.

Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and what happens to the house in each aisle.

The limit is the house itself. Some homes can only be fixed so far. At a certain age the stairs win. The move happens anyway, later and in a hurry.

In the same AARP survey, 44% of adults 50 and older expect to relocate at some point. The remodeler gets the early years. The senior housing operator gets the late ones.

Senior housing is the assisted living and memory care buildings people move to when the house stops working.

And every retrofit lands on a fixed income. A family that can afford the rail may put off the shower.

The arithmetic

Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts, shares and levels by age of household reference person, owner-occupied real estate at market value, data through 2026:Q2 (downloaded October 2026): households 70 and older 27.3% in 2026:Q2, about $13.6 trillion; under 40 12.3%. In 1989:Q3, when the series begins, 70 and older held 14.6% and under 40 held 22%. AARP Research, 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey (December 2024, 3,090 U.S. adults surveyed June 17 to July 1, 2024): 75% of adults 50 and older want to remain in their current home as they age; 44% expect to relocate. Fewer than 1% of single-family homes fully wheelchair accessible and fewer than 4% easily modified for people with mobility challenges: AARP, as stated by chief policy officer Deb Whitman, reported by HomeCare, January 2025.

 

Watch two things over the next year. The Fed’s 70-plus line, and the for-sale signs on your own street. When the first one stops climbing, watch the second. Until then, the remodeler has the busier calendar.

Andrew

Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.