“The only way out of this is to die” California (and maybe Montana as well) made them rich on paper and now they’re stuck in place.

“We’re over-housed

“The whole system, in my opinion, is designed to not have anyone move out of their homes once they’re empty nesters,” Kearn said.

For a large subset of mostly baby boomers, what’s keeping them in place is the money they’d lose to the government — both federal and state — if they sold.

If the tax code changed there’d be “an enormous amount of homes that would come on the market that people otherwise are not going to sell until they die.”

By Tessa McLean, California Editor