[ajsnigrutin]

This would be true, if someone old sold a house in san francisco and bought a house in bumfuck alabama...

But considering that people tend to move to a few urban locations, the house prices in eg. florida got very expensive too... yes, they earn a bit more, but I don't believe that single house owners, moving from SF to FL (or wherever) are causing the housing crisis.

[acdha]

It's also true if you sell a house in San Francisco and move to South Florida, or North Carolina, or all of the other places millions of people do exactly what I described. Retirees don't need massive houses, to minimize commutes to downtown, or being in the best school district, which opens up many options which other people might pass up. If your goal is “on the beach in South Beach”, yes, it'll cost a fortune but if your goal is “near the beach, any beach” you have plenty of options for well under $100k.

I don't disagree that this isn't driving the housing crisis — my point was simply that it's not like many older people aren't strongly in favor of the housing market staying high until they can cash out, because for many people their home equity is the largest component of their retirement plan and they aren't interested in continuing to need to deal with the maintenance required by a single-family house.