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According to research from the NAHB Seniors Housing Council, active adults will visit a new home site between 11 and 17 times before making a purchase.
A New Marketing Approach Was Needed
This information has driven an interesting shift in the type, location and marketing approach of active adult housing. Let me share some of the insights Kathie and I have had into the mind of the active adult buyer and how these have an impact on design, location, lifestyle choices and community amenities.
Issue #1: We don’t need to move; in fact, we don’t even want to move. All of our memories are in our present home. My wife dreads sorting through years of “stuff” and having to discard erstwhile “treasures.” Our kids beg us not to move and uproot their memories. Quite simply, we are reluctant to change our comfortable life patterns.
Insight: Create product that enhances the lifestyle while eliminating the negatives of “staying put.”
Emphasize what many older existing homes don’t have. Design dream kitchens, fabulous great rooms and master suites with all of the luxuries. Storage! Storage! Storage! Include ample wall  space for family portrait galleries. Incorporate generous space for entertaining, crafts and hobbies.
Particularly appealing is the flexibility to change room uses to match the empty-nester’s lifestyle. In its new Trilogy at Redmond Ridge, a 1,500-home community in Redmond, WA, Shea Homes for Active Adults has created a series of plans with rooms that can be redefined to reflect changing lifestyles.
This is accomplished by planning flexible spaces that can open up to busy areas or close down for quiet uses, based upon the room’s location. This is great for marketing purposes, allowing the sales person to “define” the room for a prospect based upon the lifestyle expressed during the buyer’s pre-qualifying conversation in the sales center.
Remember the three hot buttons for empty nesters:
- Community
- Privacy
- Security
They can be provided most efficiently in a new home and community. When the new neighborhood, home design and amenity package are conceived in concert and include a strong lifestyle focus, the resulting community is bound to have strong market appeal.
Issue #2: Our roots are here. My job is here, and with the current market conditions, I may be forced to work longer than I had anticipated. Our family also is here, along with our church, health club, dentist, doctor, bridge club…
Insight: Build where the market wants to be — close to home.
Let residents keep close to their affiliations. Market the closeness of the familiar.
If your market also includes people from outside of the area, make it easy for them to see how close the “new comforts” are to your community. Graphically depict the closeness of the clubs, places of worship, health care facilities, etc., in relation to the project site. If these are not close, you may have difficulty convincing your prospects why they should buy.
Large, master-planned empty-nester communities have the volume to provide for golf courses, clubhouses and luxury recreation facilities. Even a moderately sized new community can have a pool or other amenity, which can be a sure-fire magnet for grandkids to come and visit — my wife really likes this concept.
Ensure that your buyers don’t resist the additional cost of the monthly maintenance fee. Sometimes, the convenience of existing community amenities, such as shopping, a library, parks and recreation make it unnecessary to provide new amenities.
The cottages at Poulsbo Place, a 300-home master-planned community in Kitsap County, WA, are on an infill site immediately adjacent to a historic rural (now suburban) small town. The developer knew this convenience would appeal to buyers more than on-site amenities and that they no community monthly maintenance fees would be needed or required.
Issue #3: We have nothing to gain by moving. Our home is paid for and I like my rose garden.
Insight: Prospects don’t have to move, they get to move.
They can take part of the value of the old home and invest it for future security. For the escalated value of the previous home, they can have the kitchen, master suite and whatever the home lacked. Additionally, they can move in without having to remodel.
There is no reason not to unload that big lot and relax in the smaller yard, where they can still raise award-winning roses without spending extra time weeding, mowing or painting.
Issue #4: We’ve always had our own home. We don’t want to lose our identity in some huge condo or cookie-cutter seniors development filled with people just like us.
Insight: Certainly mega-communities or urban-stacked condos can appear nondescript. But large master-planned communities and more moderate infill communities can have a more intimate scale and can be designed with a charm, intimacy and character that emphasize a special identity.
Buyers are drawn to existing communities that reflect individuality. New infill homes wrapped in the historic style of the neighborhood can have a tremendous advantage over new homes in the “burbs.” A variety of architectural styles and appropriate colors can create identity and character and sell homes of all sizes in a development.
In addition, the well-planned and thoughtfully designed small-lot community features welcoming front porches, generous sidewalks and garages that don’t dominate the streetscape, lending a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere and a strong sense of community.
Many 55-plus buyers prefer to live in homogenous communities with people their own age and homes with design continuity, lending a feeling of stability and security. However, a market exists for “blended adult” neighborhoods.
Single professionals and young couples without children share the same market preferences as 55-plus buyers. These include no-maintenance homes with a focus on active, social living. These lifestyle markets can be blended successfully in the same community to diversify the market and  speed up sales.
At Canyon Creek Meadows in Wilsonville, OR, a 12-unit-per-acre community by Don Morissette Homes, the cottages facing the neighborhood parks were quickly snapped up by grandparents who saw the benefits of entertaining grandchildren with a park right across the street. Meanwhile, single women and working professionals opted for larger homes on protected natural open space.
Critical to success is the elimination of the traditional “sequential” nature of project design. In that scheme, the land is first platted, homes are designed, models are furnished, and finally, the sales team comes in to sell the project. A fully integrated team working in concert from the outset creates the most successful empty-nester communities.
Issue 5: New housing costs are high. I can’t afford to move.
Insight: Yes, new is not inexpensive, but when you consider the delight of living in a thoughtfully planned, lifestyle-focused community, a maintenance-free lifestyle and the idea of possibly downsizing to a home that actually fits your real needs, it makes good sense.
Downsizing also can free up money for retirement lifestyle or security. The efficiencies and savings of building a community of new homes means buyers can get far more value for the dollar than with the equivalently priced custom home.
With an emerging trend toward development in “exurbia” — small towns beyond suburbia — the appeal of a pleasant small-town life is enhanced by the lower land costs outside of the urban centers. Poulsbo Place, for example, markets new homes for up to $100,000 less than the same homes on a close-in suburban site.
Emphasize the Allure of Relocating in Your Planning, Building and Marketing
As a whole, the benefits of relocating (notice I didn’t say “moving”) to a thoughtfully planned active adult or blended adult neighborhood have tremendous allure. With the focus on our emerging empty-nester lifestyle and soon-to-be status as grandparents (we’re expecting our first this year), Kathie and I are ready to take the plunge. Now, if you’ll pass me that earnest money agreement, I have a pen around here someplace …
William H. Kreager, FAIA, MIRM is the principal of Seattle-based Mithun Architects + Designers + Planners. Kreager has achieved recognition for environmentally sensitive master site planning and innovative architectural design. His market-oriented work includes projects from small infill communities to new towns of 6,000 acres. His company won a silver award for small active adult community in the 2004 Best of Seniors Housing Design Awards for their work on Reunion Village in South Jordan, UT. For more information, e-mail Kreager or call him at 206-623-3344.
This article appeared in the Winter 2004 issue of Seniors’ Housing News, a quarterly magazine published by the NAHB Seniors Housing Council.
Attend the 2005 Seniors Housing Symposium in Metro Washington, D.C. Area
Learn more about the fastest-growing segment of the housing market. Plan to attend Building for Boomers & Beyond: Seniors Housing Symposium 2005, the premier educational and networking event for industry professionals serving the burgeoning 50+ market. For more information, click here.
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Not long ago, I proudly could claim I was too old to be a boomer but too young to live in an age-qualified community.
