Though markets in Florida and Arizona continue to lead the charge, emerging areas in Arkansas, Maine, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and other states across the country are attracting (or rather, keeping) aging home buyers, as well. In all, the NAHB analysts found 21 counties in which at least 45 percent of buyers born before 1955 purchased a home between 1995 and 2000.
“Today’s active adults now have a greater variety of choices, and many of those choices are not far from home,” says Jane Marie O’Connor, president of 55+ Marketing in Hawley, Mass., and publisher of Mature Living Choices, which reaches readers in 39 states and counting. “They now can move into age-qualified or targeted developments built by national and local builders in their own communities.”
Del Webb, for instance, which founded the concept of age-restricted communities 40 years ago with its Sun City concept in Arizona, now builds variations of that model along the Eastern Seaboard up to Massachusetts, as well as in markets in the Northwest and intermountain states.
Taking Advantage Unlike any other segment of the housing industry, the active adult market appears to cross over every boundary a builder or dealer can imagine. Whether it’s remodeling vs. new construction, high-margin vs. volume, single-family vs. attached, or suburbia vs. urban infill, boomer buyers are there.
And they’re smart, especially about the products they want and know go into their homes. “These buyers scour the Internet and know more than their builders do,” says Meagher. “They’ll come into a design center knowing everything relevant to them about a builder’s options and upgrades.”
Meagher tells her builder-clients to rely on trade partners and LBM dealers to help keep them up to speed on what boomer buyers are likely to want—and know about already. “Subcontractors and vendors have a vested interest in selling their products,” she says. “They should periodically update their builders and teach them how to sell their products, or those builders may find someone else who will.” —Rich Binsacca is a contributing editor for PROSALES.
Market Focus: Active Adults Consider the following facts about boomers that might help you and your pros focus on this emerging market opportunity:
