Decline in Real Estate

[Jared I]

Here is a good article on the boomers that will save Hawaii's real estate market. I guess the boomers didnt sock away enough money to pay medical cost and buy that new home in Hawaii, maybe they will put it on credit cards.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/reti...usat_x.htm

Seniors 65 and older represent the fastest-growing group seeking bankruptcy protection, though they made up only 5% of all bankruptcy filers as of 2001, the last year for which figures are available, according to research by Deborah Thorne, assistant professor at Ohio University; Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor; and Teresa Sullivan, a former professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Amid the soaring housing market of recent years, those 55 and older, like others, have piled up record amounts of mortgage debt. They've refinanced their homes and cashed out equity. They've also turned to reverse mortgages, borrowing from home equity to receive a stream of income. From 1992 to 2004, the percentage of households 55 or older with housing debt rose to 36% from 24%, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found. The median amount of mortgage debt rose 63% during this time, to $60,000.