ATTITUDES AND TRENDS
RETIREMENT FOR ONE: MESSAGE MANY MARKETERS MISSING
The housing industry must develop living arrangements that accommodate the needs of single people, Helen Dennis, a specialist in Los Angeles for aging and retirement, said in a story in the Christian Science Monitor. Shared housing cuts living costs and offers companionship, she told Marilyn Gardner, a staff writer for the story.
Despite the increase in singles, marketers continue to target retirement housing, products and services to couples, according to Dennis. Such exclusionary marketing, Ms. Dennis says, sends negative messages to singles, making them think, "I don’t fit. I really am a third wheel."
Christopher Hayes, director of the National Center for Women and Retirement Research in Southampton, New York said "We are going to be living in a singles society, with many single older women. Companies are going to have to wake up to the reality that these women exist and that they have their own unique needs."
As the first baby boomers turn 55 this year, gerontologists expect the ranks of older singles to continue to grow, making loneliness an issue for women in particular, the Monitor story said. Hayes added, "My perception, and it’s a very strong one, is that singleness will be one of the biggest quality-of-life issues for women entering retirement in the millennium." For more information go to http://www.csmonitor.com/.
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ACTIVE ADULT BUYERS TAKE TIME TO MAKE DECISION TO BUY HOUSES
The understatement of the year for active adult buyers is that "[t]hey take their time to make the decision [to buy a house]," reported Genevieve Buck of the Chicago Tribune. Mark Hughes of Hughes Development Corporation in Mesa, Arizona, a builder of small scale communities, made the statement on a panel at Building for Boomers and Beyond: Seniors Housing Symposium 2001. He added, "[o]ne guy came in for the 18th time—honest—checked out the models again and asked for the prices. I told him his favorite was $110,000 and he was shocked, said it was $79,000 when he first visited. I said, ‘Yes, it was—but that was six years ago."
Another builder on the panel, Bob Karen of K. Hovnanian Companies agreed. "You never know what turns them on," said Karen. "One woman shopper kept coming back over and over again until she saw a resident with a Yorkie dog. Then she decided that she wanted her favorite model built as close as possible to the other woman with a Yorkie.
"Once senior buyers decide, however, they’re on the scene all the time," added Karen. "They pull up their beach chairs and they watch the foundation being poured, they count every nail as it goes in. It’s their home and they let you know it."
Building for Boomers and Beyond: Seniors Housing Symposium 2001 was sponsored by the NAHB Research Center and the NAHB Seniors Housing Council in April 2001 in Phoenix. Next year’s symposium will take place in Orlando May 1-3. For more information, visit http://www.nahbrc.org and click on "Seniors’ Research."
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BOOMERS REDEFINE "SANDWICH GENERATION", AARP SURVEY STATES
According to a survey released by AARP, the baby boomer population has redefined yet another aspects of American society-- the sandwich generation.
The sandwich generation label has been used for decades to describe those who provide care for both their children and their parents. But reflecting new realities, the latest sandwich—as seen by AARP and increasingly embraced by leading experts and interest groups—extends the label to those likely to be managing the needs of immediate and extended family, and even those not related by blood.
AARP said its survey has important multi-cultural findings. For example, large numbers of Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and African Americans provide care for parents and other adults. Bill Novelli, AARP’s executive director said, "[I]n today’s multi-cultural America, we see new, non-nuclear family arrangements that find many baby boomers sandwiched between extended family and non-family members. Caregivers today may be assisting not only their own children and parents, but also grandchildren, nieces, nephews and even children of friends and neighbors." For a summary of the full report go to http://www.aarp.org/inthemiddle .
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WHAT DO BABY BOOMERS WANT IN THEIR HOUSES? SPACE, LIFESTYLE SOME ANSWER
What do baby boomers want in their houses? One builder in a Palm Beach Post story answered space and another answered lifestyle.
Dan Grosswald, regional vice president for Toll Brothers, told newspaper staff writer Linda Rawls, "the most important thing baby boomers want is space. They want his-and-her dens. Each wants his and her own work space."
Another builder said, "Lifestyle. That’s what we’re selling." Ken Plonski, Watermark Communities Incorporated’s vice president for public relations said a big part of the boomer lifestyle revolves around the family room and kitchen, often one "great room." Lifestyle also includes recreation. Plonski said, "boomers’ recreational needs are so important—and so different from those of their parents—that they have forever changed the face of retirement communities. Retirement used to mean a condo and a shuffleboard court or a house on a golf course. He said that is not enough to attract boomers. Features such as walking trails are important now. For more information go to http://www.gophi.com/ .
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FROM SMART HOMES TO ROBOTIC PETS, TECHNOLOGY INCREASINGLY DIRECTED AT OLDER ADULTS
"A bent for technology is often assumed to be a privilege of youth," Fiona Harvey wrote in the Financial Times. "In fact," she said, "from smart homes to robotic pets, new technology is increasingly suited to the elderly."
According to Harvey, Dundee University has just received a £700,000 [approximately US$ 500,000] government grant to develop a system that can be installed in houses to detect when a person has fallen over. It would use a network of video cameras to track a person’s movements. There is also a smart home being tested in Gloucester. Sensors around the house feed into a central computer to control various pieces of household equipment. For instance, sensors on a mattress detect whether a person is sleeping on it. If the person gets up in the night, the computer switches on lights. The bath never overflows because sensors detect when it is full.
Harvey noted that robot pets such as the Sony Aibo are popular in Japan and have the potential to be more than playthings. The pets could act as mobile interfaces to aspects of computer technology. For example, they could read aloud email messages or newspapers delivered electronically, or record messages to be sent to other people.
Caroline Scott, an analyst at Forrester Research, a technology market research company, said there is definitely a lot of potential in the market in the next 10 to 15 years for technology that helps older adults. Scott added, "Baby Boomers, people in their 50’s today, are still very active themselves but they are beginning to demand technology for their parents and they will expect it to be delivered to them when they reach that age." For more information go to http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?print=true&id=010709000690.
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LAS VEGAS COUPLE PART OF A GROWING NON-RETIREMENT TREND
"I just don’t view myself as a retired person," Terry Culp told Angie Wagner of the Associated Press in a story in the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee. "I’m doing things I never thought I’d be doing," said the resident of Las Vegas. Culp, who had worked 25 years with his New York company, decided to return to work, becoming a field engineer for the Manufacturing Assistance Partnership program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Culp enjoys his job so much, he actually goes to retirement communities in town to recruit other retirees to work for the businesses he helps.
When Culp and his wife moved to Sun City Anthem in Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas, he spent his days playing golf. The couple ventured onto the Las Vegas Strip often to dine and take in shows. But when it seemed all the golf that could be played was played, the couple decided they were bored, according to the story written by Wagner. His wife Claudia plans to pursue a master’s degree in library science over the Internet.
Mrs. Culp said, "We retired from the first life, the first phase, and now we’re just moving onto something else altogether. We don’t know what we’re going to be when we grow up." The Culps are part of a non-retirement trend that is becoming more and more visible all across the country. For more information go to http://www.gomemphis.com/.
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STUDY SAYS PEOPLE NOT CONSIDERING HOW NEEDS MAY CHANGE AS THEY AGE IN PLACE
A new research study by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) shows that a many homeowners plan to remain in their current homes as they age but they are not considering how their needs may change over time. The report includes recommendations on how to design today to anticipate future lifestages.
As baby boomers move into retirement and begin thinking about renovating their homes for the future, they should consider planning for later needs along with today’s desired luxuries, according to the ASID. The organization’s inventory includes these questions:
- Are your floor coverings durable enough to withstand a wheelchair or walker?
- Are your appliances going to be easy to use if you develop arthritis?
- How functional will your bathroom be if you no longer can easily get in and out of that tub?
- Will you be able to get up and down those stairs?
Those are not the most pleasant thoughts, but realities that homeowners and caregivers face every day, according to ASID.
Designing to "age in place" does not mean adopting an institutional look. "People love their homes. And no matter if it is to care for an aging parent, spouse or themselves, people want to maintain their lifestyle while offering that care," said Michael Thomas, ASID, principal and president of The Design Collective Group in Jupiter, Florida. He noted that designing for the eventualities of aging can be a simple as installing paddle handles instead of conventional door or faucet knobs, or as unobtrusive as reinforcing the shower wall to later accommodate grab bars. For more information go to http://www.asid.org/.
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MANY WOMEN IN THEIR 60S FORCED TO STAY IN WORK FORCE
Hundreds of thousands of women in their 60s, part of the surge of divorces that started a generation ago, are finding themselves forced to stay in the work force because they lack sufficient money to retire, The New York Times reported. Wages in effect are becoming their pensions, reporter Louis Uchitelle said.
Women alone in old age have always been at greater risk of falling into poverty than have married women, the newspaper said. Until recently, however, women alone generally meant widows, who had the pensions and savings their husbands had left them as well as a tradition of living with children. Widows greatly outnumbered older divorced women until the late 1990’s, but now for the first time the divorced outnumber widows.
"The only advice I can give to divorced older women is to keep working, for as long as they can," said Cindy Hounsell, executive director of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement in Washington. For more information go to http://www.nytimes.com/.
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