Seniors And Boomers Will Continue To Fuel Portland Housing Market
I read a very interesting housing report recently. It said that seniors and boomers and the first-time homebuyers will continue to fuel housing into the next decade.
A Look At Portland Housing In The Next Decade
David Crowe, the NAHB’s chief economist, believes that at some point pent-up demand will drive housing production back to “normal” levels. Crowe calculates that there’s already pent-up demand of between a half million and 1.5 million households. He forecasts that it may not be until late 2013 that the industry returns to producing housing at a 1.5-million annual rate.
The suburbs are more popular than many urban planning critics want to believe. Kotkin likes to point to the National Survey on Communities done for Smart Growth America and the NAR shows that more than half of Americans would prefer to live in a suburban setting, whether it’s close in or far away. The next most popular response? A rural setting (35 percent). The city finishes last at 13 percent.
Highlights Housing Report
- foreign buyers and immigrants want to move to the suburbs.
The countries they come from don’t allow for “space” around housing so when they come to the U.S., they are looking at the suburbs for homes. The evidence shows immigrants, instead of locating in urban centers, are now moving directly to the suburbs, often the first-rung. More than 50 percent of foreign-born residents now live in large metropolitan suburbs, up from 44 percent in 1980. People don’t come from Hong Kong so that they can live in a box in America. The immigrant desire for space is very strong.
- first-time homebuyers will also be the the ones to purchase homes, delaying a family and focusing on careers and want to live in the urban core.
Then there’s the question of where young people really want to live. Surveys of Gen Yers and Xers done by RCLCO, a research and consulting firm that works with land developers and builders, indicate a strong preference for urban living—77 percent of Gen Yers, in particular, plan to live in an urban core. This desire is especially strong among WINKS—women with incomes and no kids. In coming years, WINKS “will dominate the urban landscape,” says Charlie Hewlett, managing director of RCLCO.
“There [may] be more first-time home buyers in the market in 2013–2018 than ever before,” says Hewlett of RCLCO.
- seniors, boomers and first-time homebuyers still want to move close-in to the city and want the smaller homes. Seniors although being hit with financial losses both from their retirements and housing equity, still will be the players in purchasing real estate in the future.
The percentage of households in the home building industry’s sweet spot—growing families—will contract. The biggest growth will be among the youngest, who may further delay marriage and child rearing, and the oldest, who may behave differently in retirement and semi-retirement than previous generations. Both young and old buyers may tip the scales in favor of smaller homes in the future, though those decisions will also be influenced by wealth and other economic dynamics.
What Seniors And Boomers Want In Portland Real Estate
The report said the following:
Aging Boomers may want some of the same things sought by previous generations of active adults—maintenance-free homes, active social agendas, and close proximity to shopping, health care, entertainment, and exercise. But the settings in which they find these things are likely to change. Instead of creating large, highly amenitized communities, developers may be better off creating smaller enclaves—some age-restricted, others design-targeted—close to suburban hubs.
Much of the above is what I’ve reported here on my ALL ABOUT…..Seniors.Boomers And Small Houses blog along with other topics the report listed. Boomers want to be close to amenities and not necessarily those 55+ neighborhoods. If they live in the suburbs, the housing should be in developments that include shopping, walkable neighborhoods, availability of transportation to health care, entertainment and other services. Builders need to rethink construction and should consider building neighborhoods within neighborhoods.
Builders will need to rewrite their marketing and advertising messages to appeal to an increasingly diverse buyer population. And a rise in multigenerational families, stemming from the growing Hispanic population, may require larger homes with a higher bedroom count and a new generation of floor plans.
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ALL ABOUT…..Seniors.Boomers And Small Houses. © Copyright 2008-2012. Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
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