Anne Kmit and her husband were ready to leave the friendly but frosty confines of Minnesota behind when they retired. They wanted to look for a home in a warmer climate but Kmit, a stroke victim, is confined to a wheelchair, making travel difficult.
No matter. The couple plugged in the computer and spent the next three or four days searching the Internet for potential retirement communities in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. They found one they liked enough to visit–a Del Webb Sun City project near Las Vegas.
“Out of all the places we looked at, Sun City had everything we wanted,” Kmit said. “We visited the community and purchased a beautiful home on the golf course.”
Searching the Internet made finding their new retirement home a lot simpler, saving the couple hours of time and days of difficult travel to numerous locations, Kmit said. That, combined with the fact that adults aged 55 to 74 are among the nation’s fastest-growing group of computer users, is making the Web a major new marketing avenue for retirement communities.
Thirty percent of adults aged 55 to 74 own a computer and 28 percent regularly use an online service, according to Peter Esty, executive director of SeniorNet, a national non-profit organization that provides computer and technology information to seniors.
At one of its Sun City projects, some 65 percent of its residents have personal computers, according to Phoenix-based Del Webb Corp., the nation’s largest builder of senior housing. Del Webb has closed 12 sales via the Internet since it opened a Web site two years ago. More than 160,000 people have logged onto the site, which includes an overview of the company, detailed community information, floor plans, price lists, model-home photographs and news updates on company activities.
“Most of our customers are using the Internet. They can obtain accurate information quickly and review only topics in which they are interested,” says Dave Schreiner, the company’s vice president for marketing. “It is rapidly becoming the source our buyers use most to find information about the Sun Cities and other retirement communities.”
Sun City communities are located in Phoenix; Las Vegas; Palm Desert and Roseville, Calif.; Hilton Head, S.C.; and Georgetown, Texas.
