“It’s hard to keep up with these people,” said Carolyn Lydon, a resident of Sun City Huntley, the giant retirement community some 50 miles northwest of Chicago’s Loop.
She was talking about her neighbors at the Del Webb development, where the median age is 62 but everyone, according to Lydon, “thinks young.”
Far from the rocking chair stereotype of retirement living, she said there’s always something to do at the community, which is fully loaded with amenities, including a 94,000-square-foot recreation center, golf and tennis clubs and a 14-acre lake that’s stocked with fish.
Lydon and her husband, Bill, moved from Mt. Prospect to Sun City nearly two years ago.
But now, new home designs have been introduced at the 2,000-acre golf course community, located on Illinois Highway 47 just north of the Northwest Tollway (Interstate Highway 90).
Changes are being made by Pulte Homes of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., one of the nation’s largest home building firms. A year ago, Pulte bought Del Webb, the Phoenix-based leader that pioneered in retirement housing.
The Pulte influence is beginning to show.
A new model park with 10 Pulte-influenced homes opened in June. Already, almost 200 of the new designs have been sold.
In a business where prices always seem to go up, there has been a price reduction at Sun City.
“Before the new models, the median price of a single-family home had risen to $270,000. Now, it’s down to $225,000,” said Steven Hextell, vice president of sales and marketing for Sun City Huntley.
Called the Landmark Collection, the new single-family homes range from 1,539 to 2,598 square feet and are base-priced from $182,000 to $268,000.
“We might reduce the smallest floor plan to 1,400 square feet to get the price down,” Hextell said.
Part of the savings is because of new construction efficiences instituted by Pulte.
“The Del Webb designs were not as efficient structurally as they could be, so Pulte decided to simplify the roof systems and basements,” said Hextell.
The immense buying power of a company of Pulte’s size also produced efficiencies, according to Hextell.
The Pulte influence started immediately.
“Four days after the merger last August, Bill Pulte (the company’s founder) visited Sun City Huntley and he’s been here four more times,” said Hextell.
Even as the massive residential project retools its designs for the future, the trend in retirement housing appears to be changing. Age-restricted projects are being scaled down and golf courses are not always part of the plan.
If Pulte had owned Del Webb prior to the planning of Sun City Huntley, the project might never have been built–at least not at its present size.
“We wouldn’t have planned 6,000 homes at Huntley,” said Patrick Beirne, president of the Illinois division of Pulte, who also oversees the Del Webb operation here.
Beirne said the Pulte strategy is to build more Sun City’s in the Chicago area, but the number of homes will be 1,000 or less at each development.
Already on the drawing boards is a new age-restricted project in Elgin that is scheduled to open for sales next spring.
Beirne said the 1,056-home Elgin development will be gated.
“By the end of 2003, about 40 percent of Pulte’s housing in Illinois will target the active-adult buyer,” Beirne said.
Sun City Huntley, which opened four years ago, has 1,900 sales. It was launched with a fast start. In the first 10 months, 700 sales were recorded. But the pace has slowed since then.
“Sales slipped, so a new model park was needed,” explained Hextell.
“The original model park was lavish. We had to wow people at the beginning. At one point, we had as many as 18 models,” Hextell said.
“For most of our buyers, the outside of the house is not a major concern; what they want is usable space,” said Hextell.
Even so, the new models have reworked facades.
“There was a conscious effort to pull the garage back, to flatten the front of the house. We had been criticized for garages that are too snouty,” Hextell said.
Among changes needed to adopt desert plans to Chicago’s climate were bigger closets, including a coat closet, and more space for the utilities.
Forty percent of buyers select the optional basements at Sun City Huntley, but “some desert plans are compromised by taking away space to put in basement stairs,” said Hextell.
While the bulk of residences at Sun City Huntley consists of single-family homes, buyers can select lower priced multifamily units. At the Clovers, a grouping of four-unit buildings, prices range from $140,000 to $196,000, according to Hextell.
The Arcadia condos, with 30 units to a building, are priced from $150,000 to $300,000.
Carolyn and Bill Lydon are typical of the buyers at Sun City Huntley. Their ages are close to the median 62. Buyers must be 55 at Sun City.
After raising four children in Mt. Prospect, they decided to downsize. At the same time, they wanted to stay close to their friends and family, which now includes six grandchildren.
“We first considered a townhouse and looked at every one in a 50-mile radius, but we decided we didn’t want stairs,” said Bill Lydon.
“We had visited Sun City at Palm Desert (California) and were impressed,” said Carolyn Lydon.
One major selling point at Sun City Huntley for the Lydons was its 18-hole Whisper Creek golf course.
“We’re golfers and play three times a week,” she said.
“We’re always busy. There’s a lot of social activities. We’ve met friends in the neighborhood and at the lodge,” she said.
One sport they havent’t tried yet is bocce ball, but “it’s the biggest activity here,” said Bill Lydon. “Everybody can play. Not a lot of talent is required. And it’s social, a good place to meet people.”
While golf runs from mid-March to mid-December, they are also active in walking, working out at the recreation center, line dancing and ceramics.
The list is long: tennis, swimming (indoor and outdoor pools), bridge, canasta, pinochle, computer club and a variety of outings away from the community. All the recreational activities and community maintenance costs are covered by a $106 monthly association fee. Lawn care and snow removal are extra.
“When winter comes and cabin fever sets in, we travel to a different place each year,” said Bill Lydon, who is still employed but thinking of retirement. He noted that some 40 percent of Sun City residents still work.
How could the Sun City Huntley experience be improved?
“We’re anxious for more restaurants in the area,” Lydon said.
“The median income of residents at Sun City Huntley is $60,000 to $70,000 and they have a net worth of a half million,” said Hextell, sales director at Sun City Huntley.
While many Sun City Huntley residents travel during the winter, only 10 percent own second homes in warmer climates.
Sun City Huntley is the No. 1 best-selling single community in the metropolitan area in the last four years, according to real estate analyst Tracy Cross.
“Age-restricted projects are clearly among the best-sellers locally, but there are many housing choices in the Chicago area and not everyone wants recreational facilities,” he said.
“Potential retirees, the 58- to 65-year-old age group, is getting larger every year, but the big numbers of retiring Baby Boomers won’t kick in until 2008,” said Cross, president of Scaumburg-based Tracy Cross and Associates.
“Age-restricted communities appeal to affluent middle- and upper-income buyers. It’s not a blue collar phenomenon. It’s a specialty market that attracts about 5 to 6 percent of those in the 55 and over age group. Not everyone wants to pay for living in a country club community,” said consultant Steven Hovany of Strategy Planning Associates, Schaumburg.
Though Sun City Huntley is the largest age-restricted development in the Chicago area, the trend toward large retirement projects started in 1988 in the far southwest suburbs with Carillon, a 2,024-home golf course community near Romeoville. At that time, the location was considered in the middle of nowhere and the Baby Boomers hadn’t begun to retire.
Carillon survived financial problems and was purchased by Cambridge Homes in 1995 and completed.
Now, the area has evolved into a retirement mecca.
“Carillon was so successful that we bought land about two miles away in Crest Hill,” said Richard J. Brown, Cambridge’s CEO.
The new age-restricted community is called Carillon Lakes. With 296 acres, it is planned for 1,120 homes, ranging in size from 1,107 to 2,322 square feet and in price from $151,990 to $223,490.
Yet another retirement development has opened next to Carillon Lakes. Called Grand Haven, it is a 186-acre joint project of Lakewood Homes and Del Webb, in Romeoville.
“We wanted Del Webb’s expertise in the 55-plus market,” said Christopher Shaxted, Lakewood’s executive vice president.
Eleven decorated models can be viewed. The townhouses are base-priced from $153,990 to $178,990, while the single-family homes go from $169,990 to $208,990.
While the gated 677-home development does not have a golf course, the Mistwood Golf Club is nearby.
The recreational focus at Grand Haven will be at the newly opened lodge. The 15,000-square-foot clubhouse is equipped with a fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, sundeck, ballroom, card room, billiards tables, library, arts and crafts facility, bocce ball and tennis and basketball courts.
“Buying at an age-restricted development is really a lifestyle decision, not a housing decision,” consultant Hovany said.
He noted that retirement communities in the Chicago area are purposefully located near major highways “so there is easy access for grandmothers to visit their many grandchildren.”
