Millennials aren't buying baby boomers' luxury ranches — and it's a sign of a much larger problem in the US real-estate market

Millennials aren't wild about everything in the west. As baby boomers in western states age, their luxury ranches are going up for sale — but younger generations, namely millennials, view the properties as more labor-intensive and expensive than appealing, Katherine Clarke reported for The Wall Street Journal. "Their children aren't necessarily always as interested in operating the properties," Ken Mirr, a local ranch broker, told Clarke. "Sometimes the kids just see cows and think 'What should I do with this?'" It's led to an oversupply of luxury ranches in the real-estate market, mostly in Colorado, the report said. Buyers aren't in a hurry to make a purchase, leading to price cuts — and some ranches have sat on the market for years, Clarke reported. Most ranchers don't disclose how much they paid for properties, and public records aren't always transparent, making it hard to assess property values, but they've sold for as much as $175 million, an agent told Clarke. Operating costs vary but can be in the millions, Clarke said. There's the professional golfer Greg Norman's 12,000-acre ranch, listed for $50 million, and the late real-estate developer Ronald Boeddeker's 221,000-acre ranch — his children put it on the market for $100 million in 2017, but it's since received a $30 million price cut, according to Clarke. And last year, a $180 million lottery winner put his 16,000-square-foot California mountain estate, which comes with a fully operational buffalo ranch, up for sale, Business Insider's Katie Warren reported. Originally listed for $26 million, it was cut by $6.9 million in August...MORE