-
Universal design has yet to become mainstream practice in the home building industry, but that may change as the boomer generation ventures further into its retirement years.
-
Shea Homes, a private home builder based in Walnut, Calif., announced on Tuesday that it has entered the Florida home building market. Victoria Gardens, a gated, active adult community located between Orlando and Daytona Beach, will offer five models for viewing beginning in early 2008. According...
-
Hard to believe this gem of an infill site was once occupied by a junkyard. “Local folklore even has it that the eccentric former owner had a bomb shelter under there, which we haven't confirmed, although we did find a reinforced underground concrete room when we started digging,” says architect...
Luxury four-plexes are captivating smaller households.
Symphony Village reflects a couple of trends that have been bubbling up in the 55-and-over world for the past few years. According to Bob Karen, an industry veteran who planned and secured all of the entitlements for the community, the 495-unit project epitomizes what he calls the “new norm.” That...
The folks at Jenamar Communities had some hurdles to leap when it came to developing and building Jubilee at Hawks Prairie, an active adult community in Lacey, Wash. It was the first Pacific Northwest project for the Granite Bay, Calif.–based company, which focuses on the design and construction of...
There are countless statistics showing that Americans are living longer, but how about this one: According to the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate, in 1960 only 3,000 Americans were over the age of 100. By 2012, that number will change to 2.45 million. And all of them will need...
-
After extensive research reporting that active adult buyers had abandoned the concept of age-qualified communities that prohibit younger residents, a new survey suggests that may be exactly what they want.
-
- The age-50-plus housing market is transforming the way builders design and develop active adult homes.
- Households headed by Gen Xers and members of the “echo boom” (those born after 1979) purchased 55 percent of all newly built homes sold in 2003.
- The metropolitan area comprising Youngstown...
-
BUYERS IN PHOENIX HAVE LOTS OF CHOICES, SO carving out a niche there is a challenge. To get its piece of the pie, Meritage Homes Active Adult has positioned itself as the value leader in the area's active adult market, but that doesn't mean the builder/developer is cutting corners or skimping on...
Shea Homes has maintained its attention to leadership principles and total quality management, enabling it to solidify its position as the nation's largest privately owned home builder.
-
- The NAHB endorses measures to strengthen Freddie Mac's and Fannie Mae's effort to boost the homeownership rate among underserved populations.
- Suburban areas near metropolitan markets are where 55- to 74-year-olds are most likely to buy a home, according to a recent analysis of 2000 U.S. Census...
-
Las Vegas builder R. Wayne Wermuth has made corian countertops, ceiling fans, and two-tone custom paint standard in the five, single-story floor plans at Solera at Anthem, a 385-acre, age-restricted, master planned community in Henderson, Nev. Making such luxury options standard has increased his...
-
These market researchers say builders haven't yet supplied what aging boomers, whom they call 'nexers,' really want.
-
We went to Sun Lakes, where we presented ourselves as a frequent-traveling, still-working active adult couple who needed convenient access to Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport.
Nobody does lifestyle better than Del Webb, and Anthem Parkside proves its formula for success goes beyond active adult communities.
-
The active adult development community eagerly anticipated The Mews. Research among local consumers by Goswick Communications, based in Houston, found not only a desire for a variety of housing types in various smaller-scaled neighborhoods but also a strong desire for a gate-guarded community.
When Del Webb opened Sun City Hilton Head in 1995, the community represented the West Coast active adult builder's first splash back East, where it hoped to sell 400-plus homes annually in South Carolina's low country. "Hilton Head is a destination resort, but it's not a destination retirement...
-
At Murphy Farms, a master planned community in the Dallas suburbs, the upstairs master bedroom has become a thing of the past. "[These buyers] don't necessarily want to be segmented or categorized in how they live," says Jeff Kingsbury, vice president of sales and marketing at McStain Neighborhoods...
To hear developer Ralph Spargo tell it, making this 183-unit project work rests on one principle: steering away from cliches about active adults and looking at the reality of older people's lifestyles. There's a lot of difference between somebody who is 55 versus 90, somebody retired versus still...