Gene and Karen Miller are looking for some peace and quiet.
Neighborhood noises and yard maintenance are wearing thin on the retired couple, so they’re considering a move into an age-restricted housing development.
“We’d like to be around people our own age,” said Karen, 55, whose husband is 70.
In the traditional neighborhoods they’ve lived in, “the kids get out in the middle of the street and play hockey. Teenagers have boom-boxes. It’d just be kind of nice to be around people our own age with similar interests.”
For Colorado homebuilders, people like the Millers represent much of the future of the housing market. Their numbers are increasing steadily, and as the Baby Boomers behind the Millers reach retirement, they’ll grow like a fast-expanding subdivision.
As a group, people nearing retirement, ages 55 to 64, are growing faster than any other age segment in the state, researchers said.
Already, demand is climbing for retirement housing–generally single-story patio homes with no yard maintenance, some level of security and a quiet neighborhood, homebuilders say.
Several thousand retirement housing units, most of them small single-family homes, will be built within the next few years as two major projects get under way: U.S. Home’s age-restricted development in Aurora, Colo., called Heritage at Eagle Bend, and the Broadlands, a major housing project in nearby Broomfield that will be roughly 33 percent empty-nester and retirement homes.
“I think more builders are going to be adding this to their housing portfolio,” said Roger Reinhardt, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver.
Members of the “graying market”–which includes older members of the Baby Boom generation–want more leisure and travel time, and aren’t as emotionally attached to their large single-family homes.
“We’re different than our parents,” said apartment broker Jeff Hawks, who at 46 is still far from retirement. “You’ll have to drag my parents kicking and screaming out of (their) house.
“I have a lot of friends of my generation that say, `When the kids are gone, I don’t need this big house. I may get a condo, I may just rent.’ Most of us have had four homes. We bop around, we travel.”
When homebuilders discuss the retirement market, they’re talking about the future as well as the present, and they’ve broken it down into three areas: the Baby Boomers, ages 34 to 52, the older of whom have begun planning for retirement; empty-nesters and early retirees from 53 to 64 years old; and those 65 and older, whose needs might include medical and other services near home.
A few statistics illustrate the market power in those three groups.
In the Denver area, where half the statewide population lives, the number of people 65 and older will rise from roughly 9.5 percent of the total population now to nearly 16 percent in 2020, according to Jim Westkott, the state demographer.
During the next five years in the Denver area, the number of people over age 45 will grow by 250,000, said Cheri Meyn, president of The Genesis Group, a housing research and consulting firm in Denver. Meanwhile, those 25 to 44 will not be growing, she said.
During the next 25 years, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Colorado will rank No. 4 nationwide in terms of elderly population growth as a percentage of total state population.
Builders have been aware of the demographics for some time, but they’re just now beginning to build to meet the coming demand.
U.S. Home plans to build what company officials consider the state’s only large-scale, age-restricted (50 and older) retirement community.
Heritage at Eagle Bend will consist of 1,345 single-family homes along a golf course. Homes will be one-story and will range from $125,000 to $250,000.
“The interesting thing about senior housing is it’s so big that there’s a number of different categories to it,” said Jeff Whiton, Colorado division president. “What we’re concentrating on is the first part, what you used to call retirement housing or empty-nester housing. People at the retirement age or near retirement.
“They want to change their lifestyle,” Whiton said. “Their life centers more around social activities.”
The Millers have given a refundable deposit of $1,000 to U.S. Home to hold a spot in the development because sales won’t officially start until next spring. They haven’t committed to the development, but Gene Miller said higher interest rates would probably be the only deterrent.
“The lifestyle would suit us,” he said, then laughed. “We consider ourselves old fogies.”
“At night we don’t go out very much,” chipped in his wife, Karen.
She talks excitedly about U.S. Home’s plans for the maintenance-free subdivision where she wouldn’t have to mow the lawn or shovel the sidewalk. She has been responsible for those duties since 1992, when Gene suffered a spinal-cord injury.
“What happens if I have a heart attack or I get sick?” she asked. “We would want to get into a retirement-type place before we’re forced to?”
Some builders, such as Denver’s Larsen Homes, already focus on empty-nester buyers who no longer have children living with them, but still have 10 to 15 working years left.
“These folks are not downsizing, they’re `rightsizing,”‘ said Jamee Smith, director of sales and marketing for Larsen. “They’re just reallocating space for them now and their personal lifestyle. Maybe they have the chance to garden. Maybe it’s a gourmet kitchen.”
“That’s the primary reason we are there,” said Larry Larsen, president of the company.
The Broomfield City Council last year approved a 2,197-unit subdivision, which could include as many as 800 units of housing for people nearing retirement age.
