The
total value of homes owned by Baby Boomers in Neath alone is £1,343,191,994 – and two-thirds of the
Neath Millennials are set to inherit all that in the next few decades!
Could this be the answer to the housing
crisis?
Could Neath Millennials live it up for the
next few decades, safe in the knowledge they will get a huge lump sum to pay
off their debts and buy a house with what is left?
Before
I look at that, which set of people in Neath exactly are the Neath Millennials or
Neath Baby Boomers?
Come
to that, who are Generation Z, the Silent Generation or Generation X?
All
these are phrases used for the different groups of people in their various life
stages of our society.
So,
splitting the groups down:
Silent
Generation: Born 1945 and before (77 years old and above)
Baby
Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964 (58 years old to 76 years old)
Generation
X: Born 1965 to 1980 (42 years old to 55 years old)
Millennials:
Born 1981 to 1995 (27 years old to 41 years old)
Generation
Z: Born after 1996 (everyone under 26 years old)
Using
data from the Census, my research shows there are …
8,122
households in Neath owned by Neath Baby Boomers and they are worth a combined
value of £1,343,191,994.
The generation that will inherit those Neath
properties will be the millennials.
There are 6,028 millennials in Neath.
After looking at the local demographics,
homeownership statistics and current life expectancy, around two-thirds of
those Neath Millennials have parents who own those 8,122 Neath properties, meaning each is in
line for an inheritance of £334,071.18.
Yet
what about Neath’s Silent Generation?
There are 7,275 homes in Neath owned by the
‘Silent Generation’ and they are worth £1,203,117,675.
The issue for those who will inherit their parents’
homes is that there are far more Generation X people in Neath than millennials.
Two thirds of the 9,767 Neath Generation X
will inherit £186,639.25 – still nothing to sniff at yet not as much
as the millennials!
So, whilst the Neath Millennials are less
likely to own their own home compared to Generation X and so have done not as
well in amassing their assets and savings, they are more likely to benefit from
an inheritance boom in the years to come.
This
is likely to be very comforting information for those Neath Millennials,
including some from humbler upbringings who historically would have been unlikely
to receive an inheritance.
Nevertheless,
inheritance is not the silver bullet that will get the millennials onto the Neath
housing ladder.
Nor
will it deal with the increasing wealth inequalities in British society, as the
inheritance they are likely to receive won’t be accessible when they are trying
to buy their first Neath home.
So
before all you Neath Millennials start running up your credit card bills, safe
in the knowledge they will be paid for when your parents pass away in 20/30 years,
over half of the females and around a third of men are going to have to pay for
their nursing home fees.
Remarkably,
I recently read 25% of people who must pay for their nursing home fees run out
of money, and therefore have to rely on funding from the local authority
Therefore,
if you are a Neath Millennial, no inheritance will be left for you. It goes
without saying, most Neath parents want to give some inheritance to their
children.
Yet
if waiting until you pass away to help your children or even grandchildren with
your legacy could be seen as too late, so what are the options?
One
solution to help and fix the housing crisis in Neath (and the UK as a whole) is
if parents and grandparents, where they can, help financially with the deposit
for a house whilst their children/grandchildren are in, say, their 20’s and
early 30’s.
Buying
a Neath property is much cheaper than renting – I have shown it many times in
these articles.
It’s
not a case of not being able to afford the mortgage; the problem is raising the
mortgage deposit (of 5% to 10%) for these Neath Millennials.
Maybe
families should be discussing the distribution of family wealth whilst everyone
is alive (in the form of helping the family with house deposits) as opposed to
waiting until the end, as it will make a massive difference to everyone in the short
and long run.
And
a final thought, your legacy will have a more significant impact, and you will
be here to see it with your own eyes.
A
win-win for everyone.
