CONDO ARCHIVES

Baby Boomers on Condo Boards

August 2024

Too many baby boomers never learned to manage money.  This may partially explain why so many condominium communities are dependent on special assessments.

Baby boomers are the first generation addicted to easy money and debt.  They lived in a world that was safer and more stable.  There was no world war.  Most never served in the army and failed to develop the discipline this entails.  During much of this time there was easy credit which made it easier to earn a comfortable living, own a car and buy a house.

Unlike prior generations, baby boomers willingly took on debt to buy what they could not afford.  They then passed this habit to their children and grandchildren who took self-gratification to a new level.  We now live in a world where few know how to support a normal life without credit or being in debt.  Nobody seems content to live within their means.

Baby boomers are now in their retirement years.  They sit on and often dominate condo boards.  Having created a world dependent on debt and borrowing, and passing their financial habits to their children and grandchildren, condo boards they volunteer to sit on are increasingly dependent on special assessments to pay for their inability to set condo fees at a level sufficient to maintain their home and community.