Retirement News : Seniors : Active adult living residents certainly aren't retiring types

Active adult living residents certainly aren't retiring types

Date Added: 08-03-2005

Strike the creaky term "old age" from your dictionaries. It has no place in the lexicon or lives of today’s 60-plus generation, which is operating under a motto that harkens back to their 1960s roots: "Hell no, we won’t go!"
Ever the activists, as they battle inevitable aging, they also are retiring the antiquated concept of retirement that their parents embraced. Instead, baby boomers are preparing to lace up their Rollerblades, crank up the iPod and skate into hip, sophisticated active adult communities (also called lifestyle communities) that are popping up like flowers around the country, catering to their every whim.

Bill Parks, the former architecture director for Del Webb Corporation who now tracks the coming great herd of retirees on behalf of delighted, bewildered developers, says if you don’t see an active adult community springing up near you, just wait six months.

"It’s amazing," he says. "There were over 100 started last year and about 50 are scheduled to open this year, and that’s just what’s on my radar. There are so many that don’t announce until they open."

Parks says there are more than 1,200 active adult communities nationwide, with many more in the planning stages. Although their underlying purpose remains much the same, giving empty nesters a place to downsize after the kids have flown.

Just how big a trend is this for home builders? Jeff Jenkins, deputy director of the seniors housing council for the National Association of Home Builders, says that since 2001, when the first boomers became age-qualified for 55-plus communities, the impact has been "staggering."

"According to our figures, people age 55 and over accounted for more than 207,000, or about one-fifth, of the 1.1 million new-home purchases made in 2003," he says. "The active adult market accounted for an estimated $51 billion in new-home sales in 2003. That’s why you’re seeing active adult communities springing up everywhere."

In many ways, the World War II generation invented retirement living; it was, after all, the first generation that both outlived its work and amassed enough wealth to kick back and enjoy its golden years. And it chose to do so 1) in the sunny climates of Arizona, California and Florida, 2) with a pool and golf course handy, and 3) a community center or country club through which to establish a new social life.

Perhaps the biggest difference between active adult communities and the first generation of retirement villages is location. Numerous surveys have turned up a surprising finding: Two out of three boomers want to retire within 100 miles of where they have worked and raised their family.

Dave Schriner, vice president of active adult business development of Del Webb branded communities for Pulte Homes, says even the more mobile one-third of the herd no longer yearns for the sun as their parents once did.

"They’re willing to move further, but interestingly their motivation is not all weather-oriented. Many times, the children and grandchildren have moved away, and they’re actually chasing them," he says.

"The same reason people stay typically is the reason some people go, which is to be close to family and friends."

So how will the boomers retire? The short answer is, slowly. An AARP poll found that 43 percent of boomers plan to work into their 70s and even 80s, due in part to the double-whammy of child care and elder care of the "sandwich" generation and the high dive of their tech stocks.

Parks admits it’s going to be a challenge catering to the needs of a generation that has stayed at the Ritz-Carltons of the world. He doesn’t figure them for what he considers "contrived theme" approaches such as the Disney community of Celebration.

If he had to place money on it, they’re going to want top-quality, scaled-down homes in smaller communities with a wide variety of activities and proximity to world-class dining and the arts (i.e., a big city) or sports (i.e., a college or university). A golf course is probably no longer the draw it once was.

For more information:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/03052005/biz_nati/68309.htm