Everybody is all freaked out about the retirement of the Baby Boomers. I am freaked out too, but only because I (technically) am one. And there is no way I want to be associated with those hippies. Heck, I was only six years old during the Summer of Love. The only thing I loved that year was cartoons. And Tonka trucks.

And I don’t plan to retire. I plan to ripen with age. Like good cheese.

However will we pay for the Baby Boomer’s retirement? Whatever shall we do? Hands everywhere are chapped from all the wringing.

Two words: Echo Boom (a.k.a. the Largest generation in U.S. History). Sure, the World War II vets had a lot of kids, but so did their kids. Check out this nifty dynamic age-distribution graph from our friends at the Calculated Risk Blog.

By 2015 the demographic “bulge” caused by the Baby Boomers all but disappears. The Echo Boom kids born between 1982 and 1995 (I will do the math for you – they are between 18 and 31 years old now) are just coming into their own. The oldest of the group have been held back by five years of the Great Recession, but they have put aside their game consoles and are starting to do some great work. And starting families.

Seems to me that the Echo Boomers will need homes to raise their families. And places to work (which probably won’t look like the places their parents worked).

Based on demographics alone, there will be strong demand in all real estate sectors over the next 10 to 15 years. And we are at the bottom now.

– Bob Gagliano

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