Bigger homes, second homes, trophy homes - baby boomers continue to gobble up housing at a frenetic pace despite the weaker economy. Sales of both new and previously occupied homes soared to new levels in March.
Warning signs do exist.
But don't tell to that to boomers, who are driving the buying binge by virtue of their sheer numbers. Confidence is not a problem for the wealthiest generation ever - the 76 million Americans between the ages of 37 and 55. She and her husband put their suburban Houston home up for sale this spring and are shopping for a bigger, pricier house closer to the city center. Academics and other experts, while hardly alarmist about the immediate future, say things can't continue to sizzle indefinitely. Tom Lys, head of the Kellogg Real Estate Center at Northwestern University, says the housing market has yet to feel the impact of growing white-collar unemployment, but it likely will.