BATTELLE EXECUTIVE PREDICTS BABY BOOMERS WILL WANT "HEALTHIER" HOUSES
Steve Millet, a "futurist" for Battelle, the influential technology-research organization in Columbus, Ohio, predicts that there will be "healthier" houses in the future. In an interview in the Chicago Tribune, Millett, described as a "thought leader," said the biggest reason is that "we’re getting older and we’re none too happy about it."
Secondly, he believes Baby Boomers have become more health conscious. And thirdly, Boomers have the bucks to do something about it, Millett said. He noted that they have hit their peak earning years.
Some of his top predictions for "healthy home trends" by 2010 include:
- There is going to be a demand for sensors that help fight mold, humidity and other indoor pollutants;
- The Internet will team with devices that will inform our doctors about our daily blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels;
- There will be a lot of interest in efficient micro-turbines and engines that run on natural gas. He says the equipment that generates both heat and electricity, known as microcombined heating and power, already is in use in Europe.
For more information go to http://chicagotribune.com/
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THE NEW RETIREE
The stereotypical retiree is one who moves somewhere warm and plays golf every day, according to Building Design and Construction magazine. However, this is becoming less and less the norm, said Meg DeDolph, a writer for the magazine. While golf courses do play a prominent role in many developments, their emphasis is becoming diffused, she said.
She quoted Harriet Ford, director of public and community relations at Sun City in Huntley, Illinois as saying, "I think it’s because the role of the woman has changed. When people retired, the man went off to play golf and the woman stayed home, chatted with friends and went to the salon on Saturday. Now, they both have successful careers."
In addition, retirees often do not want to leave their careers completely behind. At the Sun City development northwest of Chicago, many residents have stayed in the Chicago area and continue working, having maintained their professional contacts in the city. This trend of holding onto a career was reflected in a 1999 Del Webb survey of approximately 400 people between the aged of 48 and 52 where about 61 percent of the respondents predicted that they would work at least 20 hours a week after retirement. A similar question posed to 400 people, aged 65 and older, revealed that only 19 percent held similar views.
For more information go to http://www.bdcmag.com/
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WORKING BABY BOOMERS "RETIRING" TO RESORTS IN NEW JERSEY
According to the New York Times, working Baby Boomers are retiring to resort communities in New Jersey. Although there are no national statistics on such communities, said reporter Andrew Jacobs, Leslie Marks, executive director of the Seniors Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders, believes New Jersey is a trendsetter. "It’s starting to happen in other places, but New Jersey is a hotbed of activity."
The Times said the center of the trend is Ocean County, poised halfway between Philadelphia and New York and blessed with huge tracts of undeveloped land. In the past five years, the nation’s biggest home builders have flocked to the area, the newspaper said, "creating more than 10,000 single-family homes in developments that look like scaled-down versions of suburban tracts, but without the minivans, spacious lawns and frolicking children." William Becker, a consultant to the age-restricted industry, said the new crops of adult developments are selling more than just houses. "The message we send out is resort, resort, resort. Our advertisements barely even talk about housing."
The newspaper said tens of thousands of older Americans are forsaking the sun and sand colonies of Florida, Arizona and California and choosing to stay closer to home in so-called active-adult communities that combine luxurious, suburban-style living with the amenities of a country club. To purchase the full text of this article, go to http://www.nytimes.com and search the archives under "resort community".
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CENSUS BUREAU DATA SHOWS 3.9 MILLION MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS
The U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that there were 3.9 million multigenerational family households in 2000, nearly 4 percent of all households. It is the first time the Census Bureau has analyzed multigenerational family households, those consisting of three or more generations or parents and their children.
Of the multigenerational family households identified in the data, about two-thirds (2.6 million) consisted of the householder and the householder's children and grandchildren. Another one third (1.3 million) consisted of the householder and the householder's children and parents or parents-in-law. Another 78,000 households, about 2 percent of all multigenerational family households, consisted of four generations.
Demographer Tavia Simmons, who co-authored the study, said, "Multigenerational families are more likely to reside in areas of recent immigration, where new immigrants may live with their relatives. They are also more common in areas where housing shortages or high costs may force families to double up their living arrangements or in areas with relatively high rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing, where unwed mothers live with their children in their parents’ home." For more information, visit http://www.census.gov and click on "Releases" under News.
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AGING BABY BOOMERS SHOULD APPLY "LIVE-IN" TEST FOR NEW HOMES
According to Katherine Salant of Inman News Features, when it comes to choosing one new house over another, many buyers apply the love test. "Will I love this house in 20 years as much as I do now?" But, says, Salant, if you’re an aging baby boomer
pushing 50, you should also apply the"live-in" test—"will I still be able to live in this house 20 years from now?"
The writer said, when you’re 70 you may still be fit as a fiddle, but at some point, if you live long enough, you will face the inevitable: declining physical vitality and physical impairment. To remain in your house, some modifications will be required. Incorporating them when you build the house not only insures that the modifications will be in place when you need them, but also everyone in the house will benefit from the day you move in.
If you elect to wait until the modifications are needed, says Salant, you may not make them. They can be depressingly expensive, and, when hurriedly installed in the midst of a health crisis, ugly to boot. Even when they look good, many seniors regard them as loathed symbols of their reduced circumstances, and choose to do nothing, even if this means having access to a very small part of their house.
Fortunately, many home builders are aware of the need to incorporate features in the home’s initial construction to allow the home to be lived in over the long run. These features, known as universal design features "can be so seamlessly incorporated that you will not even notice them," said Brookfield, Connecticut, kitchen and bath designer Mary Jo Peterson. For more information go to http://www.inman.com/
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SENIORS EXPECTED TO INCREASE COHABITATION RATES
According to the U.S. Census, a small but growing number of Americans over age 65 now live as cohabiting couples, almost twice as many as a decade ago, the Los Angeles Times reported. The newspaper said demographers expect the portion of senior couples who cohabit to grow dramatically in the 2010 and 2020 census as baby boomers who rebelled in their 20s bring their attitudes into old age.
Times writer Robin Fields said the 2000 census data released so far shows that households made up of unmarried partners overall increased 72 percent in the last decade. Age-specific data will come later, she said, but a number of other census surveys suggests that seniors, though constituting only a drop in the pool of cohabitants, may have met or outpaced that growth rate.
According to the Census Bureau’s annual Current Population Survey, households made up of opposite-sex senior couples rose 46 percent between 1996 and 2000, a bigger jump than that of their middle-aged counterparts. Other reports fold in same-sex couples, showing the number of senior cohabitants rising 73 percent between 1990 and 1999, from 127,000 to 222,000.
As potent as the emotional issues can be, pragmatism, not romance, often governs whether those older than 60 live together instead of getting hitched, Fields said. Cohabitation allows older couples to share expenses, a crucial concern for those living on fixed incomes as life spans extend. Not marrying, however, means couples do not take on the financial obligations of each other’s long-term medical care or intermingle their retirement benefits, the newspaper said. For more information got to http://www.latimes.com/ and search for "They're Older but Not Old-Fashioned About Love and Marriage." Registration required to access this article.
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