St Neots’ Millennials are set to inherit £638,123 each from their Baby Boomer parents.
The total value of homes owned by Baby Boomers in St Neots alone is £1,606,321,244 - and two-thirds of the St Neots Millennials are set to inherit all that in the next few decades!
Could this be the answer to the housing crisis?
Could St Neots 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?
But who exactly are St Neots Baby Boomers or Millennials? 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:
- 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, research shows that there are 4,399 households owned by Baby Boomers, and combined, they are worth a value of £1,606,321,244.
The generation that will eventually inherit those St Neots properties will be Millennials.
There are 3,774 millennials in St Neots.
After looking at the local demographics, homeownership statistics and current life expectancy, around two-thirds of St Neots Millennials have parents or grandparents who own those 4,399 St Neots properties, meaning each is in line for an inheritance of £638,123.40.
But what about St Neots’ Silent Generation?
There are 3,798 homes in St Neots owned by the ‘Silent Generation’, and they are worth £1,386,862,488.
The issue for those who will inherit their parents’ homes is that there are far more Generation X people in St Neots than Millennials.
Two-thirds of the 8,879 St Neots Generation X’ers will inherit £313,908.99 - still nothing to sniff at yet not as much as the millennials!
So, whilst the St Neots 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 St Neots Millennials, including some from humbler upbringings who historically would have been unlikely to receive an inheritance.
Inheritance is not the silver bullet that will get Millennials onto the St Neots 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 St Neots home.
So, before all you St Neots 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 women and around a third of men are going to have to pay for their nursing home fees.
Remarkably, 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 St Neots Millennial, no inheritance will be left for you. It goes without saying, most St Neots 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 St Neots (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 St Neots property could possibly be much cheaper than renting – it’s worth exploring.
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 St Neots 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.
If you want to discuss how to help a child or grandchild onto the property ladder, please get in touch, we'll be happy to talk it through with you.