Housing and the 50-plus

A couple of interesting takes on what is happening in the housing market for the 50-plus.

It appears that the "active adult communities" in the US – I guess we would call them retirement villages in the UK - have not powered ahead in the way that had been predicted.

Conventional wisdom had home builders anticipating a wave of early-retiring boomers jumping from their family homes to active adult communities, leaving lawn mowing behind as they spent their pre-golden years golfing and taking cooking classes.

So far, the wave has yet to build. Sales of homes in active adult communities are growing, but not by leaps and bounds. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the percentage of 55-plus home buyers (in the US) who opt for active adult living has grown from 2.2% in 2001 to 3% today. That means 97 percent of them currently are not moving to adult communities.

This article provides a very sound set of arguments why the growth in the market has not occurred, some are to do with the recession, some are not.

At the much older end of the 50-plus age spectrum, when people require care services, all is not well. The US has exactly the same problem as the UK with paid care being expensive and individuals and government lacking the funds to provide.

This post in AgeingPlaceTech spells out the reality.

All is not well in the world of housing and the 50-plus, but a place with zillions of business opportunities. Dick Stroud