I am one of the 40 million baby boomers roaming around out there asking the same question as many others: “When are builders going to pay attention to us and build homes that we want to move into?” What does this home look like you may ask? Well, it would be a one to one and a half story home with 2- 3 bedrooms, a couple thousand square feet, modest finishes, a small private court yard, a reasonable price and in a location with access to the necessities.

Alas, it seems as if the builders have essentially abandoned us. They got us hooked on our first starter home, then moved us up a couple of times to eventually the 4 bedroom, 4000 square foot home with the theatre room, hot tub and 1 acre lawn…then POOF! They are gone! They are MIA when it comes to providing homes and communities that we want and will buy. We don’t need all that space and “stuff” anymore. We have figured out that a more compact and manageable home sets us free to turn the key and go… maybe to our other compact home on the coast or mountains, to a place we’ve been dying to see, or just free to spend money on something else.

In the Charlotte, NC region, the top selling community for the past couple of years has been an active adult (another name for over 55) community. I’m not talking about by a few homes either. I’m talking 70 percent more sales than the next competitor, who by the way was not an adult community…go figure. This is totally out of character for builders who predictably play follow the leader when they see one competitor trump them, but they are the only game in town.

Now this community does have all the trappings and the developer has had years of experience at perfecting his product, marketing and amenities.  However, as with all real estate markets, there are degrees of luxury and the boomers are not all looking for the same thing. Studies done recently have shown that not all boomers want golf, tennis or even a pool. Some look for communities with trails as their key amenity and for others the convenience factor to services may be their amenity of choice. My point is that builders do not have to provide a resort type community to attract the boomers.

So builders, if any of you are out there reading this, I can assure you that the pool of buyers that are ready, willing and able is plentiful…40 million plentiful. They are still working, have money and are chanting “Build me the home I want…Please!

By Mike LaRuffa