The new head of Bank of Montreal’s U.S. operations is ramping up growth plans for the Canadian banking giant south of the border, hiring bankers, opening and revamping branches, and building out its wealth-advisement business.
Key Points
The Department of Education and the U.S. Treasury Department announced a new interagency agreement on March 19, 2026, that will shift operational control of defaulted federal student loan collections from Education to Treasury. This comes as nearly 7.7 million student loan borrowers holding $180 billion in student loans are in default.
The move, which the administration has branded the “Federal Student Assistance Partnership,” marks an big step forward in dismantling the Education Department in what officials described as the equivalent of the “fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States.”
Under the agreement, Treasury will immediately take over collecting on defaulted student loan debt, using private collection agencies to help borrowers in default enroll in rehabilitation programs or return to good standing.
Treasury will also absorb the operations of FSA’s Default Resolution Group, which manages the Default Management and Collections System (DMCS). In future phases, Treasury would expand to managing non-defaulted loans and potentially other FSA functions, including FAFSA administration.
It’s important to realize that Treasury already played a large role in collections, but this is now administrative control of the bigger program.
The federal student loan portfolio now stands at nearly $1.7 trillion, with fewer than 40% of borrowers actively making payments.
There are an estimated 7.7 million borrowers in default, and another 4 million are in late-stage delinquency, meaning close to 12 million borrowers are either in or approaching default.
The portfolio is roughly twice the size of all American university endowments combined and exceeds total U.S. credit card debt and auto debt individually.
“The Federal Student Assistance Partnership marks an intentional and historic step toward breaking up the Federal education bureaucracy and dramatically improving the administration of Federal student aid programs that millions of American students, families, and borrowers rely on to access higher education,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent framed the move as overdue financial oversight. “Treasury has the unique experience, the operational capability, and the financial expertise to bring long overdue financial discipline to the program and be better stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Bessent said.
The administration pointed to the Biden Administration’s 2021 decision to terminate all private collections contracts, which left the Education Department with limited infrastructure to handle calls and help defaulted borrowers. Many of those borrowers have remained stuck in default for more than six years, damaging their credit and limiting financial options.
The basic premise that Treasury will now handle student loan debt collection. For most other government debt, Treasury handles collections. But the Department of Education received a waiver back in 2001 to collect their own debt. The Treasury Department is revoking this waiver.
The rollout will happen in phases. The first phase puts Treasury in charge of defaulted loan collections.
Subsequent phases would extend Treasury’s operational role to non-defaulted student loan debt and other FSA functions, to the extent “practicable and permitted by law.”
The Department of Education, through both the Office of Postsecondary Education and FSA, will retain all statutory responsibilities, including policy development.
The Treasury Department, specifically through its Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), already touches student loans at several points.
The biggest one borrowers encounter is the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). TOP allows the government to intercept federal payments owed to a borrower (tax refunds, Social Security benefits, and more) and redirect them toward defaulted student loan debt.
This is the primary involuntary collection tool for defaulted federal student loans, and it’s been in place for decades.
Beyond TOP, Treasury already disburses the actual funds for federal student loans: meaning the money students receive originates through Treasury’s payment systems.
Treasury’s IRS data systems are also used for income verification on the FAFSA and for income-driven repayment plan certification (the IRS Data Retrieval Tool). Both agencies have also contracted with many of the same private collection agencies, so there’s workforce overlap.
What’s new here is that Treasury is going from being a back-end infrastructure partner to an operational one: actually managing the collection process, running the Default Resolution Group, and overseeing private collection agencies directly.
Borrowers do not need to take any immediate action as a result of the partnership. Borrowers in repayment should continue working with their assigned loan servicer.
Those in default should visit myeddebt.ed.gov for help getting out of default.
However, the move has drawn significant pushback. Protect Borrowers Policy Director Aissa Canchola Bañez said in a statement, “With more than 8.8 million Americans already in default and millions more at risk of falling behind after being kicked off the SAVE plan and forced into more expensive options, this move will cause even more confusion about a student loan system that has been fraught with unprecedented disruptions and instability.“
Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, have warned that shifting the loan portfolio away from Education could be a precursor to selling the debt to private investors, which they argue would strip borrowers of protections tied to federal loan programs, including access to income-driven repayment and public service loan forgiveness.
The administration has not announced plans to sell the portfolio.
There is also a practical track record to consider. A 2014-15 pilot project that tested Treasury’s ability to collect defaulted student loans, and they didn’t have as much success compared to the existing Department of Education infrastructure.
The Education Department has also recently delayed involuntary collections (including Social Security garnishments and Treasury Offset Program seizures) to prepare for the new repayment options under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Wage garnishment notices had begun going out to about 1,000 borrowers in early 2026, with plans to scale up monthly.
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Editor: Colin Graves
The post Treasury Department Takes Over Student Loan Collections From Dept Of Education appeared first on The College Investor.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT 0.64%) have been slammed so far in 2026. As of this writing, the stock is down about 19% year to date — a decline far worse than the S&P 500‘s 3% pullback.
This sell-off comes even as the company continues to post impressive top- and bottom-line growth.
So why did shares fall?
The answer likely comes down to the staggering cost of the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race and the risks this race introduces. Even though Microsoft’s top line is compounding at an enviable rate, the massive investments required to support this growth are elevating the company’s cost structure.
Image source: Microsoft.
Microsoft’s second-quarter results for fiscal 2026 showed a business firing on all cylinders.
Total revenue in the period came in at $81.3 billion. And the company’s profitability was particularly impressive. Microsoft’s non-GAAP (adjusted) net income jumped 23% year over year to $30.9 billion.
Highlighting the software giant’s underlying momentum, its Microsoft Cloud segment was a key driver for the business.
“Microsoft Cloud surpassed $50 billion in revenue for the first time, up 26% year-over-year, reflecting the strength of our platform and accelerating demand,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained in the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
The company is seeing rapid adoption of its AI-powered software tools, too. Microsoft 365 Copilot — the company’s generative AI — saw paid seats hit 15 million during the quarter. This was up more than 160% year over year. In addition, paid subscribers for GitHub Copilot reached 4.7 million, climbing 75% year over year.
And Microsoft’s overall business momentum should continue. Management guided for third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $80.65 billion to $81.75 billion. The midpoint of this range implies a strong year-over-year growth rate of about 16%.
But looking under the hood, things become more concerning.
The AI build-out is incredibly expensive.
While the company is generating massive amounts of cash from its operations, its free cash flow, or its cash flow from operations less capital expenditures, came in at just $5.9 billion in the second quarter. This represented a notable sequential decline as the company’s heavy infrastructure spending offset its robust operating cash flow.
Even worse, these mounting costs are beginning to pressure the company’s profit profile.
“Company gross margin percentage was 68%, down slightly year-over-year primarily driven by continued investments in AI infrastructure and growing AI product usage,” Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood emphasized during the company’s earnings call.
In other words, while AI is driving top-line growth, it is also highly capital-intensive. And it’s arguably necessary to stay relevant as other tech giants are ramping up their own capital expenditures on AI. As these infrastructure investments continue to rise, they’ll increasingly show up as depreciation, creating a headwind for Microsoft’s earnings.
Today’s Change
(-0.64%) $-2.51
Current Price
$389.28
Market Cap
$2.9T
Day’s Range
$387.08 – $392.49
52wk Range
$344.79 – $555.45
Volume
1.3M
Avg Vol
34M
Gross Margin
68.59%
Dividend Yield
0.89%
With Microsoft down sharply this year, investors might be tempted to view this as a buying opportunity.
But I don’t think it is.
Of course, it is possible that the company’s massive investments yield an incredible return over the next decade. But I’m not convinced the stock is a safe bet today.
As of this writing, Microsoft trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of about 25. A valuation like this assumes the company will successfully thwart any threats to its business in an AI-first era, protecting its competitive advantages and continuing to grow revenue and earnings rapidly.
And if the AI infrastructure build-out takes longer to pay off, or if competitive pressures force the company to keep capital investments elevated for years to come, the company’s earnings growth could slow, and the stock’s valuation multiple could even contract.
Overall, I believe Microsoft simply doesn’t offer enough of a margin of safety right now. I’d avoid shares and wait for a potentially bigger discount before adding this tech giant to my portfolio.
Natural gas futures climb on Qatar facility damage, Raymond James comments
Update 3/19/26: It’s been pointed out that the terms show clearly that the Price Match Guarantee is available for Sapphire Reserve consumer and business card. It could be it’s not yet live on the consumer card as it’s currently only showing in the login on the Business card version. Please let us know if anyone tries actually submitting a claim on the consumer version.
Original Post 3/18/26:
Chase has added a price match guarantee on hotel bookings made on Chase Travel hotel bookings made with the Sapphire Reserve for Business card. This includes The Edit hotel collection bookings.
For example, if you find the Chase portal charging more than Expedia or Priceline, you can book on Chase and get the lower price matched.
This is huge for those redeeming their their annual hotel credits on the Sapphire Reserve for Business card, and also for those using the Points Boost redemption option for hotels on the card.
Hopefully the personal Sapphire Reserve card will get this matching feature as well.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on FlexJobs.com.
“Tell me about yourself.”
Be honest — did you feel a little anxious just reading that? You’re not alone. There’s a reason this question (though really more of a statement!) is so tricky to tackle.
It’s open-ended, leaving many job seekers unsure how to answer or what details to highlight. And while you may wonder what the best answer to “tell me about yourself” might be, the truth is, there’s no single best response. The right answer will vary depending on your background, the role, and the company you’re interviewing with.
What’s universal, though, is the importance of learning how to introduce yourself in an interview. A thoughtful introduction can turn this daunting question into a golden opportunity that helps you create a positive first impression and sets the tone for a successful conversation.
By focusing on the role you’re applying for and preparing your response beforehand, you can craft an answer to “tell me about yourself” that’s confident and tailored to your unique strengths.
Interviewers ask this question to gauge how your experience, skills, and career goals align with the role and the company’s needs. As FlexJobs’ Lead Career Professional Toni Frana puts it, “Employers are really looking to see how you would fit into the specific role at the company.”
It also sets the tone for the conversation, offering a natural starting point while providing insight into your compatibility with the company’s culture. Use this opportunity to highlight your professionalism, share relevant experiences, and let your personality shine.
Interviewers might rephrase “tell me about yourself” in different ways, so be prepared for variations, such as:
Regardless of how the question is asked, it aims to uncover the same thing: how your background, skills, and goals make you a great fit for the job.
The best answer to “tell me about yourself” will be concise, tailored to the role, and well-rehearsed without sounding robotic. We’ve provided specific tips on how to answer “tell me about yourself.”
“Tell me about yourself” is probably better phrased as, “Tell me what brought you to apply for this job, and some of the main qualifications that make you stand out. And throw in something that helps showcase your personality.”
But that’s obviously too long a statement to make, so employers often shorten it to a much broader question. No matter how a hiring manager phrases it, focus on these four aspects in your answer:
Start by addressing those four subjects in a draft version of your answer. Once you’ve got a rough version on paper (or screen), it’s time to start narrowing, focusing, and distilling. You’re aiming for about 30 seconds from start to finish. (Yes, it should be that quick!)
Time yourself to find out how long you’re talking, and you’ll see that 30 seconds is just about right. Any more than that, and it can start to sound like rambling.
It might also help to remind yourself that this is just an introduction to you. During the rest of the interview, even if it’s just an initial screening, you’ll have further chances to showcase more skills, qualifications, and personality. So don’t try to pack it all in at the beginning.
Without sounding too rehearsed, you’ll want to have a clear understanding of how to answer this question. Practice will help you to:
When crafting your answer, think beyond your personal goals and highlight how your background aligns with the company’s objectives. Research the company’s mission, values, and challenges to ensure your response is tailored to its priorities.
For example, instead of simply stating your skills, you could say:
“In my last role, I spearheaded a marketing strategy that increased web traffic by 40%, and I’m excited to bring that same innovative thinking to your team as you expand into new markets.”
Most of the time, job interviewers are meeting with multiple people with very similar qualifications. Adding a touch of personality to your response makes you relatable and memorable while keeping the tone professional.
Share a passion or value that ties into the role or the company’s mission. For example, if the company values sustainability, you might mention your personal commitment to eco-friendly practices.
Keep it relevant and avoid overly personal details. Oversharing can detract from the professional image you want to project. Instead, focus on elements of your personality or experiences that highlight your enthusiasm for the role and reflect the company’s values, ensuring your response remains thoughtful and impactful.
A strong response to “tell me about yourself” balances professionalism, personality, and relevance. Use this structure to craft your answer:
Here’s a template you can use with these key points included:
“I am a (job title) with (X years) of experience in (field/industry). In my previous role at (Company Name), I (describe an achievement or responsibility).
“I am drawn to this opportunity at (Company Name) because (specific reason related to the role or company mission). I believe my expertise in (relevant skills) can help (Company Name) achieve (specific goal or need).”
Here are additional strategies that can help you nail the “tell me about yourself” interview question.
While the core elements of your answer might stay the same, customizing it for each role and audience can make a big difference. Recruiters are likely looking for hard skills and qualifications, whereas hiring managers focus on problem-solving abilities and cultural fit. Adapt your examples and focus areas based on who’s asking the question.
For instance, when speaking to a hiring manager, you might highlight how your leadership and problem-solving skills contributed to a team’s success:
“In my previous role as a team lead, I prioritized fostering collaboration among diverse groups. By doing so, we successfully completed a high-stakes project two weeks ahead of schedule. I’d love to bring that same focus on teamwork to your organization.”
Even when discussing career transitions or challenges, framing your answer positively is a must. Instead of focusing on negative experiences with a previous role or company, emphasize what you learned or how those experiences shaped your career goals.
For example, you could reframe a lack of resources by saying:
“In my previous role, I faced challenges with limited resources, which taught me how to be innovative and adaptable. That experience strengthened my problem-solving skills and inspired me to seek opportunities where I can contribute to a team with a shared commitment to innovation and growth.”
Rather than simply listing your qualifications, weave your experience into a story that captures attention. People tend to remember narratives more than facts, so sharing a brief anecdote that illustrates your skills or passions can make your response stand out.
Consider incorporating something like this:
“My love for puzzles and strategy games sparked my interest in project management. In my last role, I led a team through a major system upgrade. By managing tasks, timelines, and resources effectively, we not only completed the project ahead of schedule but also saved the company significant costs.
“That experience confirmed my passion for bringing order to complex challenges.”
Need some examples? We get it — this question can be tricky to navigate, especially when you want to make a great first impression.
Following are effective “tell me about yourself” sample answers tailored to different career paths and experiences, each showing how you can craft a concise and impactful response.
Start by breaking your response into clear steps — where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished, and where you’re headed. This approach works well if you have a straightforward career progression.
“I’m an innovative recruitment manager with eight years of experience managing all aspects of employee prospecting — from resume screening and phone screening to benefits — for Fortune 500 companies. I have spent the last four years developing my skills, leading to performance recognition and two promotions.
“I love vetting candidates and determining how they align with an organization’s culture and business goals. And although I enjoy my current role, I feel I’m now ready for a more challenging assignment, and this position really excites me.”
Using this simple three-part formula can help you craft a professional, informative answer to “tell me about yourself.” Reflect on your journey and tie it to the role at hand.
“I’m currently an account executive at Smith, where I handle our top-performing client. Before that, I worked at an agency where I was on three different major national health care brands.
“And while I really enjoyed the work that I did, I’d love the chance to dig in much deeper with one specific health care company, which is why I’m so excited about this opportunity with Metro Health Center.”
Do some research ahead of time to best know about the company and how your specific expertise and strengths can help them. Putting yourself in the employer’s shoes is a great way to stay focused when answering this question.
“I was born and raised in this county and have an excellent knowledge of the area, as well as Central and Midland Counties. During the last nine years with the ABC Freight Company, I have progressed through positions of package leader, courier, dispatcher, and team lead.
“In my most recent position, I have had the opportunity to complete numerous management training programs, provide supervision and leadership to all positions within the station, and participate in special projects in conjunction with senior and district managers.
“I enjoy being a lead and the opportunity to empower and motivate my team. Last year I was awarded ‘Lead I’ for greatest team gains in productivity. I believe this experience and training has prepared me to take the next step and pursue a management position with you.”
If you’re changing careers, your goal is to show how your previous experience translates and why you’re excited about this new opportunity. Start by framing the change as a natural progression of your skills and interests.
“For the last 10 years, I’ve worked as a teacher, where I developed strong communication, organization, and problem-solving skills. Recently, I made the shift to instructional design, combining my love for teaching with my passion for creating impactful learning solutions.
“In my previous role, I successfully designed training materials that improved employee onboarding processes by 30%. I’m thrilled about the opportunity to bring my expertise and fresh perspective to your team.”
If you have deep experience in a specific field, use this opportunity to showcase your expertise, notable accomplishments, and alignment with the company’s mission. This is an excellent approach for senior roles or niche industries.
“I have over 15 years of experience in IT, specializing in cybersecurity for financial institutions. In my current role, I implemented a threat detection system that reduced response times by 40%, safeguarding critical client data. I’ve also led cross-departmental initiatives to align IT security protocols with industry standards, resulting in increased client trust.
“What excites me about this position is the opportunity to lead security strategies on a larger scale while continuing to protect sensitive information. I’m passionate about leveraging my technical expertise to support your organization’s commitment to secure and innovative solutions.”
Regardless of your background, use these “tell me about yourself” examples as inspiration when crafting your own response.
Your response to “tell me about yourself” can either set a positive tone for the interview or create doubts in the interviewer’s mind.
FlexJobs Career Professional Keith Spencer highlights the importance of crafting a thoughtful answer: “Try your best to focus on your specific qualifications for this particular position, relevant experiences that have prepared you for the role, and your enthusiasm for the job—that’s how you can create a positive and professional first impression.”
Here are five ways to avoid common pitfalls and ensure your response stands out for the right reasons.
Spencer cautions, “When answering ‘Tell me about yourself,’ you don’t want to simply reiterate information that your interviewer could have read about you in your resume.”
You can generally mention where your career started, some jobs along the way, and your most current role, but now is not the time to list them one by one or to talk about every task you had at each job. Keep it succinct and about 30 seconds long.
Depending on where you are in your career, your job history may go pretty far back. If your first job out of college isn’t related to your current career, don’t mention it. Or, if you’ve had a career change, you can opt to only focus on the roles that directly relate to your new career area.
Mentioning unrelated roles could be a distraction and lead an employer to wonder if you’re focused on or experienced enough for the job you’re applying to.
While it’s important to show personality, steer clear of any personal topics, such as if you do or don’t have kids, your marital status, or your religious or political affiliation.
Not only are these illegal for an employer to ask you about, but they’re not relevant to the job and could even cause your interviewer to discriminate.
Remember, the goal is to demonstrate how you can contribute to the organization, not just what you want from the job. Spencer advises, “Another mistake to avoid with your response is focusing too much on what you want, instead of emphasizing the value you can provide to the organization.”
Tailor your answer to highlight how your skills, experiences, and career goals align with the company’s needs, showing that you’re a solution to its challenges.
Specifics are important throughout every stage of the hiring process.
Avoid generic statements like, “I’m a hard worker” or “I have good people skills.” Instead, provide concrete examples that demonstrate your qualifications and achievements, such as, “I led a team project that reduced processing times by 20%” or “I implemented a new onboarding program that increased employee retention by 15%.”
Specifics make your response more compelling and show that you’ve thought critically about your value.
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Management is defined as getting work done through others. In this introductory video, we explore the common functions of management and set the stage for the remainder of this video series.
source
Dave:
48 trillion dollars of real estate could be changing hands soon as baby boomers age and bring their massive inventory of property to the market. Some have called this impending demographic shift, the silver tsunami, and have claimed it will cause a crash in the housing market unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the past. But those same people have been saying this for 10 plus years and clearly it hasn’t happened, but the situation is changing. Boomers are now on average in their 70s and the generational shift of property and wealth is already starting to happen. We can see it in the data. So will that lead to this long predicted crash? Will the market shrug it off like it has for the last decade? Today and on the market, we’ll find out.
Hey everyone. Welcome to On The Market. I’m Dave Meyer, Chief Investment Officer at BiggerPockets. Today on the show, we’re addressing a demographic issue facing the housing market as baby boomers wants the biggest generation in the country age and give up the very substantial portion of the housing market that they own in the United States. Either because they’re choosing to rent, they go into assisted living or they pass away. And this shift, which I should say is completely inevitable given the demographics and the sad realities of mortality, this shift is going to hit the housing market in a way that aging and people getting older doesn’t normally hit the housing market. It doesn’t normally create these structural shifts, but this one probably will. And that is just because of the sheer quantity of housing stock that Boomers own. We’re going to get into the details of that a bit later, but for now you should just know it’s a ton.
They own way more real estate than you probably think they do. And the generational transfer of these properties, either by selling them or passing them along to their heirs is going to impact the housing market. But in what ways? Is it going to be a crash? Like all the people calling for this silver tsunami have been saying for more than a decade now. Does it mean we’re going to have faster sales? Does it mean we’ll have slower appreciation? What will this demographic shift actually do to the market? People obviously have very different takes on this. Some people sort of just blow it off and say that the market’s going to absorb it, nothing’s really going to happen. On the other end of the spectrum, people are calling for a crash saying that boomers are all going to sell in a relatively short time period that’s going to create a supply and an inventory spike and that’s going to push down prices.
But today on the market, we’re going to find out what is most likely to happen. We’re actually not just going to spew some hype or blow things off. We’re going to dig into the actual data and trends and uncover what this situation will likely bring to the housing market and what it means for investors. We’re going to start by laying the foundation. We’ll talk about demographic realities and how kind of in crazy, insanely concentrated housing is right now in the boomer generation. Next, we’re going to talk about the timeline, because people have been calling for this generational shift for more than 15 years, at least. I think the term actually started coming around in the 80s, but it started gained ground in 2008 to 2011 is when people really started talking about it. Clearly that crash hasn’t happened yet, but given the inevitability, when will this actually start?
Next, we’re going to talk about inheritances because even if boomers eventually leave their homes, which they will, will it all hit the market or are they just going to pass it down to younger generations desperate to get a deal on housing? And then lastly, we’ll game out what is actually going to happen or what is likely to happen. I’m going to pull it all together for you using historical precedents, examples from other countries. And we’re going to bring in the other dynamics of the housing market that we talk about a lot on this show to give you actionable information about this upcoming generational shift so that you can actually do something about it and make decisions about your own portfolio. With that, let’s get to it. So first up, let’s just talk about what’s going on with demographics. You probably know this, but Boomers, biggest generation in the US for a very long time.
This was after World War II. There’s just a massive spike in births, and this created the largest generation we had ever seen. Actually, as boomers have started to age and unfortunately start to die off, millennials are now the biggest generation, but boomers for a long time were so big that it sort of created this economic force that changed the entire landscape of our country as they reached different periods of their life. When they were reaching peak home buying age, when they were in their peak earning age, when they were starting to retire, has had huge impacts on our economy. And housing, especially of late, is no different. What the boomers do because there are just so many of them and they have so much wealth impacts all of us. Just to drill into the housing piece of this, as of now, boomers own 41% of all US property, which is a lot.
For the first time ever, Americans over 70 now own a larger shale of real estate wealth than middle-aged Americans, people from 40 to 54. That is not normal. Normally people who are mid-age, who are at the peak of their earnings, who have families, they have the highest concentration of wealth when it comes to real estate. That has shifted for the first time only recently. Now it’s people over 70 that is very unusual. And it’s not just mid-life, middle-aged people who are negatively impacted. Actually, if you want what I think is maybe a sadder comparison, if you look at people under 40 years old, they own just 12.6% of real estate wealth. That is one of the lowest it has ever been and it’s been completely unchanged for over a decade. So it’s not like millennials and Gen Z are catching up. If anything, the opposite is happening where more and more of the real estate wealth is concentrated in older generations.
So if we’re just tracking the accuracy of these claims about a silver tsunami that’s going to crash the market, which I have been consistently hearing for so long, that just hasn’t been true as of yet. Boomers have not been selling en masse and they have largely held on to their real estate. But why? Why are they behaving so differently from other generations? We have some information about this, both from surveys and just some demographic data. The first reason they are not selling and they still hold so much real estate is just lifestyle preferences. Actually, there’s a real estate survey from Clever Real Estate. This was just back in 2025. They found that 61% of boomers, so the majority of boomers say that they never plan to sell their home. That is up seven percentage points in just a single year. It went from 54 to 61 in just a single year.
And the reason for that, that the survey is really good. It dug further into that and asked, “Why do you plan to never sell your home?” And more than half of them said, “They just want to age in place. They don’t want to go into assisted living. They don’t want to downsize or find a new home. They just want to age in place. And that’s pretty different from other generations.” On top of that, 34% of the people who said that they never will sell their home is because they plan to leave it as an inheritance. And actually 30% of them worry that they can’t afford a new home. That’s the lock in effect, right? Just impacting everyone across the board. The boomer generation is no different for a lot of people who own their home for a long time. Perhaps they’ve paid off their mortgage or they have a two or 3% mortgage rate.
It is more expensive for them to downsize. This is something we talk about on the show all the time. This is holding up the housing market a lot right now, and the boomers are experiencing that the same as everyone else. So the point here is that one of the main reasons is people just want to age in place. You see at least a third of boomers saying that they will never sell their home because they are going to age in place. And that is significant impacts for what’s going to happen in this demographic shift. So that’s something we have to keep in mind. But the second reason we haven’t seen this flood of inventory on the market is really economic because as boomers started to age, starting to hit retirement age about 10, 12 years ago, rates for the 12 years they were in their age when they were going from working to retirement, we had this epic run of low mortgage rates and they were able to refinance into very affordable payments even without their salaries, right?
Even just using social security or pensions or pulling out money from their 401k because rates were so low when they had to make these decisions, they have affordable payments probably locked in, but that’s not all. Actually, less than half of Boomers even have a mortgage in the first place. 54% of them own their homes outright, meaning they are under very little pressure to sell and they have very low cost of living. So unless something forces them to sell, why would you? You’ve lived in your house probably for 30 years, you’ve paid off that mortgage, and if it’s more expensive to go somewhere else, why would you do that? And so they’re under very little pressure to sell. So when you look at these two things together, they don’t want to move for lifestyle decisions. And for the most part, they don’t have to move because they have the economic wherewithal to stay in place and not sell.
That means that this silver tsunami people have been saying is going to crash the market for 10 years has not materialized because boomers have largely held on to their property, but they’re aging. That still happens, right? They keep getting over. And so is the math going to change? And will we finally start to see the impact of this generational shift in the housing market? We’ll get to that right after this quick break. We’ll be right back.
Welcome back to On The Market. I’m Dave Meyer talking about the generational shift that we’re seeing in the housing market where boomers are aging and eventually, although it hasn’t happened yet and calls of a crash from a silver tsunami have been way overstated, this is going to happen at some point, right? There is a certain inevitability that boomers are going to die and they’re going to pass along their housing either by selling it or passing it down to their children, but that inventory will move in some way or another over the next decade or two because as of right now, the oldest baby boomers are starting to turn 80 in 2026. We are seeing that the average baby boomer is about 72 years old. The average lifespan in the United States is about 74. So we are in that time when I think this is probably going to accelerate.
And that means that this inventory may finally start to hit the market, right? If more boomers are dying each and every year, won’t we see all this inventory hitting the market? Well, it could be, but there’s also one way that it doesn’t actually hit the market. What if they don’t sell? What if they just pass along their homes to their children who, I should say, will probably be very grateful for a home with a low basis or potentially even one of those half of Boomer homes that actually don’t even have a mortgage at all. This trend of passing along properties to your children is increasing and will play a large role in how big of a quote unquote silver tsunami or generational shift actually hits the market. So let’s dig into this for a little bit. I said this at the top of the show and it is true that this transfer that we are seeing from boomers to millennials or to Gen X is already starting to happen and it is accelerating.
According to Cotality’s database, really good data source of property deeds, they showed that in 2025, a record 34,000 homes were transferred through inheritance in the 12 months prior to that. That is actually 7% of all transfers. So if you’re looking at all movement from one owner to another, 7% of it is now from inheritance, which may not sound like a lot, but that is the highest share ever recorded. So this is real and it is starting to accelerate. Now, of course we should mention that’s 340,000 properties that might otherwise have hit the market increasing inventory, but it didn’t happen. That’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here is that a sizable amount of inventory is never hitting the market because it’s being inherited and that is likely to continue. As of right now, 62% of younger Americans expect to inherit a property. And if you just presume that’s right, which I think some people are going to be very unpleasantly surprised to find out that they don’t actually inherit a property, but let’s just for now presume that about two thirds of all inventory boomers hold could never hit the market, just pass right on to their children.
That will definitely suppress the impact of this demographic shift because inventory may never truly spike. If only a third of Boomer owned properties hit the market and that drips out over the next 10 or 20 years, market probably going to absorb it just like it has for the last 10 years. But of course there are some caveats there, right? Like I said, I think 62% of people inheriting property, probably too high. I imagine that people will be disappointed to find out that even though their parents want to get out of their home, they still have costs like moving into assisted living or they have healthcare costs and they need to sell their home to actually finance those things. So I think it’s probably less than half, but I’ve looked at a bunch of different surveys. I think it’s probably going to be 30 to 50%, which is still a lot, right?
That’s still a ton of inventory that’s not going to hit a market unless, because there are a lot of caveats here. We talk about 30 to 50% of homes just being inherited and never hitting the market, that is a presumption that the people who inherit those properties don’t actually just turn around and sell, that they hold onto them. And that is another question that we should explore. I actually tried to find data about this and LegalZoom did a survey and found that 42% of young Americans don’t feel financially prepared to keep and maintain an inherited home. Just think about that for a second. We’re talking about what I think most people, at least on paper or in their heads, would dream of as a windfall, right? You’re getting a property either with partially paid off mortgage, maybe an entirely paid off home owned free and clear, but because property taxes and maintenance costs and insurance costs have gone up so much, 42% say they don’t feel prepared to inherit that home, that’s a lot.
We actually had a recent guest on Melody Wright who said that she saw that 70% will sell. I think that number is a little high. I wasn’t able to find great data on that, to be honest, but my guess is that even if the historical trend is 70%, like 70% of people sell when they inherit a home, that that’s going to shift. The housing market is just so unaffordable. I don’t think there has been ever a more attractive time to inherit a home versus going out and buying one for yourself. I think for most millennials, just speaking as a millennial and how expensive it is for my peers and colleagues and friends to afford homes, I think almost everyone I know would do whatever they can to keep the homes that their parents might pass down to them. Not everyone’s obviously getting that, but anyone who might get a home passed down to them, I think are going to try pretty darn hard to be able to hold onto that.
So even if it’s still a lot, I don’t think it’s going to be 70%, I’d say at least 50% hold onto them. So if we do all this together, and again, I am extrapolating a lot of data here. This is not precise, but I’m just saying maybe 50% of people pass their properties down onto their heirs and then 50% of them hold on. That means that 25% roughly of the inventory that boomers hold will never hit the market, but that means 75% will hit the market, and that is still a lot of property coming to market over the next couple of years. Now, that might sound like the silver tsunami that people have been predicting, but there are three important things to remember here. First, people aging and downsizing or dying or having someone inherit a home and sell it, that is not new. All the stuff we’re talking about are things that happen every day for years.
That is always happening. So it’s not like we’re like, “Oh, we have normal inventory now.” And then as boomers start to die, we’re going to have 75% of their inventory hit the market on top of what we already have. We are already starting to absorb some of this. And although I do think we will see an upward pressure on inventory because of this over the next couple of years, it is not additive. You’re not adding all this on top of existing inventory. It is part of existing inventory. The second thing is that in addition to this being an important part of inventory already, even though this new upward pressure on inventory is coming, it’s not like they’re going to list all their sales for once. That’s why I hate this term, the silver tsunami. It makes it sounds like it’s this wave that’s going to come through and crash everything, but really what’s going to happen is that health decisions or family decisions are going to play out over the next 10 or 20 years, and this will be a long and sustained upward pressure on inventory, but it’s not all going to come at once.
I just really don’t like this idea of a tsunami. I think it’s more like the tide, right? If you think about a tide going in or out, it happens slowly and it happens almost imperceptibly at any given time, but over the long run, the market will change. And I do think that we have this long-term upward pressure on inventory, which we’ll talk about more in a minute, but that means downward pressure on appreciation when there’s more inventory. But just remember, this isn’t going to be event. It is something that is going to happen over the course of a decade or more. It’s already been happening for several years and will probably happen for at least 10 more years according to the data and research I’ve done. So that’s number two thing to keep in mind here. Number three here is that, as I said at the beginning, even though boomers own a lot of property, they are no longer the biggest generation.
Millennials are the biggest generation, and millennials are at their peak home buying age. So even though we’re going to have this upward pressure on inventory, we also have a demographic tailwind that’s working with us. They’re sort of counteracting forces, right? The baby boomers were so big, but they’re selling, which means there’s going to be more supply, but the millennials are even bigger right now and they’re buying, which means that a lot of that inventory could get absorbed. Now, it’s going to be different in different kinds of markets. It’s going to be different for different asset classes, which we’re going to talk about in a minute, but those are sort of the big picture things I want everyone to remember here. Yes, more inventory probably will come to the market over the next five to 10 years, but there are many reasons to believe this isn’t going to be a one-time crash, and that’s because boomers have already been selling for several years and it hasn’t caused a crash.
They are not going to do it all at once. This is going to stretch out for a decade or more, and we have demographic tailwinds helping us because millennials are now the biggest generation in the US. So it’s not a tsunami. There’s no single event that’s going to come and rock the real estate and market, but what will happen? What does this mean for real estate investors? We’ll get to that after this quick break.
Welcome back to On The Market. I’m Dave Meyer, talking about the generational shift happening in the housing market. Before the break, I said I don’t think it’s going to be a tsunami. I have not liked that word for a long time. People have been calling for it for 10 years, at least hasn’t happened because as we’ve discussed, the transfer of boomer property to other generations is going to happen slowly, even though it will add upward pressure on inventory for I think at least the next five to 10 years, maybe even longer. But if it’s not a tsunami, what is it? How is this going to shape out? Of course, we don’t know exactly what will happen, but we can extrapolate. We know what’s happening in the housing market, how inventory and demographic and demand dynamics are shaping up. And we can also actually look at what’s happened in other countries.
And I want to dive into that just for a second here because there are other advanced economies that have similar demographic situations playing out a few years ahead of us. And so we can actually sort of look a little bit at specifically Japan and Germany. There’s a pretty good comps just demographically speaking as to what’s happening in the US. So let’s just look at Japan for a second because they also had a boomer equivalent after World War II. They also had an increase in births, but it actually happened a little bit earlier. And so almost a decade in advance, we might actually see what might happen in the United States. And what you see, if you look at property values in Japan, and they do have a lot of different rules, they have different tax incentive, different structures, all this stuff, you actually saw home prices go down.
It wasn’t a crash, but you did see home prices go down as their baby booner generation turned 75 plus. We are between 68 and 80 right now in the US who were right in that time. Now, there are some key differences between Japan and the United States. Japan has had a total declining population for a while now. The US still has a rising population for now, but if you listen to the episode I did on this a little while ago, it was a couple weeks ago, I did a whole thing on population decline. It is very likely as of right now that the US population is going to start to decline. So we could see some of the shifts that happened in Japan in the US as well. We also can look at Germany really quickly. Actually, we saw some research across the 22 OECD countries as some of the largest advanced economies in the world.
And basically what it showed was that aging will decrease real housing prices on average by around 80 basis points per year, so 0.8 per year. So that is pretty significant, right? That is a headwind to housing increases. Now, it’s important to remember that the US is starting from a structural supply deficit, right? So even though we might see more vacancy, we are starting from a negative, right? And so some of this might just get us back to a balanced market. But as we talk about on this show, all of these things, all these variables, none of them are a silver bullet. None of them are going to change the market unto themselves. What happens is some things put upward pressure on prices, some things put downward pressure on prices. And our demographics in the United States, which have been huge accelerants for housing prices over the last several decades and still are today, and I believe still will be for the next five years or so.
And starting the 2030s, maybe beyond that, it might become downward pressure on pricing. Doesn’t mean you can’t invest, doesn’t mean that housing prices are going to crash, but it’s sort of a flip. It’s a flip of a switch from a tailwind where it was helping appreciation to a headwind where it was going to hurt appreciation. That to me is sort of the big takeaway here is that it’s probably going to be a tailwind for appreciation, but let’s just game out a little bit what actually might happen here. As I do with housing predictions every year, I like to just offer different scenarios. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know exactly how this is all going to play out, but I’ve done a lot of research on this and I do think I can share what’s the most likely scenario, at least the way the data looks today.
Similar to where we are in the Great Stall, I think this is going to play out very slowly, sort of like a slow grind, right? It’s the wave, it’s not a tsunami, like I said, it’s this sort of rising tide of inventory. Boomers probably going to continue aging in place for as long as they can. They’re probably going to transfer property to their heirs gradually, and many of those heirs I think are going to choose to occupy or to rent out. Again, they don’t have to move into it. They can rent it out rather than sell. And I don’t think we’re going to see this massive tidal wave that everyone’s predicting. Not all of this inventory is going to hit the market. I think it’s probably closer to 50 to 75%. That is also going to happen over 10 to 20 years. And what I think that means is that over the next 10 to 20 years, we’re going to see more inventory and slower appreciation.
Now that is on a national basis. And as you all know, that is not really how things play out in real estate. It’s not really what matters to most of us as real estate investors. I actually think that we are going to see the biggest downward pressure on pricing in rural areas and in age dense suburbs. So if you look at places, I’m going to just call out Florida, right? They have a very old population. In those suburbs, they’re probably going to have the most downward pressure on pricing out of all of the markets. You also see that a lot of older folks live in more rural areas proportionately, or I should say rural areas are disproportionately made up of older people. So the pressure prices are going to face are probably going to be more in rural and suburban areas and much less in urban cities.
On top of Florida, also call out other places where retirees tend to move, places like Arizona or parts of California. You also see parts of the Midwest, even though they are not sunny, do have high concentrations of baby boomers. And so those are all places where I think you need to look at and rethink what appreciation in those markets might be. We might see flat markets there for a very long time. So I think we really need to consider that in those specific regions. I’m not saying that on a national basis, but just in these specific places. That’s what I think is the most likely scenario. Is there a scenario where it causes a crash? Yeah, I kind of just did a thougt exercise to try and think of like, can I think of a way where there is a big crash? And I think it has to be some sort of black swan event where all of a sudden, maybe there’s a massive stock market crash where boomers are losing some of their wealth and need to tap into their home equity to pay for day-to-day expenses and they sell their homes.
That’s something I can imagine happening. There could be some healthcare shocks, right? Boomers are in their 70s right now as they get into their 80s. We all know the price of healthcare keeps going up and up and up. And so maybe in five, 10 years, a lot of these boomers are in their 80s. They need money to pay for long-term care. They start to sell in mass in more of a concentrated fashion. Could those things happen? Yes, but I think that might probably be part of a bigger economic crisis. And so it’s not like the boomer situation alone would cause a housing market crash in that situation. It would probably add to it though, right? If we had a massive unemployment, massive stock market crash and boomers will be impacted that just like everyone else. So it’ll be another thing contributing to some challenges for the housing market.
But I don’t think. I have a hard time seeing this situation alone without some other external catalyst causing a full on real estate crash. I think the much more likely scenario is the more boring scenario where it puts downward pressure on pricing, modest downward pressure on pricing over the next five, 10, maybe even 20 years. So that’s not great news for appreciation, but again, gradual, not all at once. So with all that said, what does this mean for real estate investors? I’ll just recap this quickly, but basically what I said before, I think we’re going to see more inventory. We’ve been in a very low inventory for the last couple of years, and I do still think it’s going to take years to recover. I’m not saying this is going to happen in 2026 or 2027. I talked about this earlier. I think this is more in the 2030s, but we’re going to be moving towards there gradually.
Over the next couple of years, I think we’ll see more inventory recover. So that’s going to put some downward pressure on appreciation, but it also means more deals. I’ve said this for a while, but I think appreciation is going to be subdued for a while. It’s going to be slow. We might have flat prices for years to come. We may not see real home prices, inflation adjusted home prices for many years. I actually, we had Mike Simonson on the show from Altos Research knows a lot about this. He said he thinks it could be 10 years. And I know that seems frustrating and I know it can be scary, but it really just means you have to change your approach to investing. It means you have to change your approach to underwriting deals. I personally believe underwriting for very low or even no appreciation is smart.
I think I might even start doing that indefinitely. Actually, when I was writing my book, Real Estate by the Numbers, I wrote it with Jay Scott, great investor. He and I were sort of debating this because I underwrite for appreciation or have for the last 12 years, very modest, two, 3% appreciation for most deals, just because that’s what the long-term average is. But I actually think for the next five, 10 years, although it probably will still have some positive appreciation, as an investor, if you want to be conservative and protect yourself, I’d underwrite for little to no appreciation. That’s what Jay Scott does. He told me he’s never underwritten for appreciation. And that just means you’re going to have to look at a lot more deals. You’re going to have to be a lot more discerning. But if you do that and you can find those deals, which you can, it just takes patience and practice.
But when you find those deals, they are extremely low risk because you’re not counting on any appreciation. You’re counting on all those other benefits that real estate can bring to you. So that’s a takeaway number one, more inventory, lower appreciation, but we are going to get better deal flow. That is the trade off. That’s how it works. When appreciation is high, deals are hard to find. Then the pendulum swings back and deals are easy to find, but appreciation is low. And I think we’re sort of in the middle right now. I don’t think we’ve reached that sort of reality check time when sellers are lowering prices and rent to price to ratios start to improve, but I think we are heading in that direction. This is one of the reasons I am personally going to start focusing more on cashflow than I have in the recent years.
And that’s my plan indefinitely because as we all know, real estate makes you money in four or five different ways. We got cashflow, we got appreciation, taxes, value add, amortization, right? And because appreciation I think is no longer reliable, hopefully it comes. I could be wrong about that. Hopefully it comes, but I just don’t think it’s reliable. It is not obvious that it’s going to boost your returns. So that just means as an investor, what you need to do is just look at those other four things. How do you create a deal where some combination of tax benefits, value add investing, amortization and cash flow get you the return that you are looking for? I’ve been saying this for years, but I look at total return. I look at how my total return is among those five different ways you make money. And so if appreciation’s going to contribute less to my total return, that means those other things are going to have to work a little bit harder.
And for me, cashflow and value add are the things that you can really control. Tax benefits for some people, I’m not a real estate tax professional, so I have limited options on tax benefits. If you have those options, I would recommend getting creative there. But for someone like me or if you’re a W2 employee, cashflow and value add, those are the ways to make money in real estate right now. That’s how I plan to make money in real estate right now. It’s why I flipped the house last year, not because I want to be a flipper, because I want to get better at value add investing. And because I’m making that shift, it does mean it’s harder for me to find deals right now. I haven’t pulled the trigger on anything this year. I do want to try and buy some real estate this year, but I haven’t been able to find anything that has the right return for me.
But I will just say anecdotally and talking to friends that better and better deals are coming. I’m looking at more that are interesting and I firmly believe that more are coming. Like I said, that’s the trade off. The pendulum is swinging back in the right direction. This may sound like a bold claim, but I actually think over the next couple of years, cashflow will get easier to find. I think that prices are going to stagnate. I think they’re going to fall this year. I don’t think they’re going to grow a lot in the next couple of years. But if you look historically, rents typically don’t fall as much during these types of periods. They might even grow. And so what that means is rent to price ratios will actually get better, meaning that your prospect for cash flow is going to get better. I don’t think it’s going to get us back to where we saw rent to price ratios after the great financial crisis, but it will get closer.
And that means cashflow will get better in the coming years. And so that’s sort of the shift that I am making. Take what the market is giving you. It is going to give us less appreciation. It is probably going to give us more cash flow. Have we reached the part where cashflow is easy to find? No. And that’s frustrating. And that means you have to be extremely patient right now, which is what I am doing and what I recommend you do as well. That’s at least the way I’m approaching this, but I would love to hear your opinions on this and how you’re going to approach investing in light of this demographic shift that is going on. That’s what we got for you today for On The Market. I’m Dave Meyer. We’ll see you next time.
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European leaders doubled down Thursday on refusing to join the United States and Israel military campaigns in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising oil and gas prices caused by the war.
European leaders have deflected entreaties from U.S. President Donald Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertilizer. However, rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East a priority at the summit.
“We are very worried about the energy crisis,” said Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever ahead of the summit. He said that energy prices were too high before the war, but that the conflict “created another spike.”
“If that becomes structural, we’re in deep trouble,” he said.
The summit was initially expected to center on overcoming Hungary’s opposition to a massive loan for Ukraine, but the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon reset the agenda.
European leaders have been deeply critical of the Iranian government, but none have offered immediate help to the U.S. Britain is flat-out refusing to be drawn into the war. France says the fighting would have to die down first.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said that Europe “will not allow itself to be blackmailed” into joining the United States and Israel military campaign in the Middle East.
“Europe — and Austria as well — will not allow itself to be blackmailed,” he said ahead of the European Council summit of the leaders of the 27 EU nations. “Intervention in the Strait of Hormuz is not an option for Austria anyway.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said there was “no appetite” among leaders to expand a European naval force in the Red Sea to help secure the Strait of Hormuz or otherwise join the fray.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the war must end before his country can help with matters such as keeping shipping lanes clear.
“We can and will commit ourselves only when the weapons fall silent,” he said of potential German military support to secure shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. “We can then do a great deal, up to opening sea lanes and keeping them clear, but we’re not doing it during ongoing combat operations.”
He said that would require an international mandate, among other complicated steps, “before we can even consider such an issue.”
While the EU isn’t a party to the conflict, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he understood the U.S. and Israeli reasons for launching the campaign against the “brutal” Iranian government. He called for the EU to increase both sanctions on Iran and support for Iranian opposition groups
But others blasted the war as “illegal” and destabilizing.
“We are against this war because it is illegal,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: “It’s causing a lot of damage to civilians, of course, refugees and the economic consequences that the whole world, especially the global south, is already suffering.”
Trump had mentioned NATO support for clearing the Strait of Hormuz but has not officially requested it, said Evika Silina, prime minister of Latvia, one of the 23 out of the 27 EU nations that are NATO members.
“When there will be some official requests, I think we always have to evaluate those requests.”
The European Commission has told leaders it has a mix of financial instruments that member nations could deploy to lower energy prices, which will be up for discussion. No single policy will likely work to blunt the economic shocks from the war across the bloc’s myriad markets from Romania to Ireland.
EU leaders are hoping their experience weaning off of Russian energy in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and of building up the bloc’s military spending towards self-sufficiency will enable to them to do the same for energy independence.
While some European capitals have called for the suspension or scrapping of climate policies to stave off the worst of the recent spike in energy prices because of the war, others have argued that the EU’s long-term energy strategy should be home-grown sustainable energy decoupled from vulnerable fossil fuel markets.
European Council President Antonio Costa said that “energy means security” and that the EU should “build our own capacity to produce our own energy, because it’s the only way to be secure.”
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Associated Press writers Pietro De Cristofaro, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
Are you having a rough time finding the exact home that meets your vision? Then building your dream home may be the right strategy for you. A custom home can take a few forms.
This label encompasses everything from buying a newly built home that allows for a few customized home plans to hiring a custom home builder who can tailor every plank, light switch, and master bedroom angle to your exact specifications.
