Like many empty nesters, Dennis and Julie Doll have inaugurated their post-child-rearing,
pre-retirement years by buying a house more suited to their current and future
needs.
Both 53, the Dolls bought a ranch-style house in Hall County near Atlanta,
surrounded by a woodsy acre of land.
"My wife’s mother has knee problems and couldn’t come visit us in our last
home," said Dennis Doll.
Now comprising 42 percent of all U.S. homeowners, Baby Boomers like the Dolls
have become the focus of the 21st century housing market. In a recent Harris
Interactive survey, the National Association of Realtors has been measuring the
desires, habits and plans of these homeowners between the ages of 41 and 60.
The generation that sang rock anthems about getting back to the land has done it
in a way most did not initially envision.
The rural communes of their youth have evolved into sleek, amenity-packed urban
condos. Beach and mountain homes now satisfy their taste for back-to-nature
security.
Awash in a lifetime of earnings, equity and inheritance, millions of Baby
Boomers are investing their futures in real estate.
The 77 million U.S. Baby Boomers are now in their peak earning years, with the
survey showing they account for 55 percent of American households with more than
$100,000 in annual income.
In addition, many anticipate becoming the recipients of significant inheritances
from their thrifty Depression-era parents during the next 10 to 15 years.
The Realtors’ survey shows that as many as a quarter of America’s Baby Boomers
now own more than one piece of real estate. That’s almost 20 million buyers for
second homes and investment properties.
Ten percent of the Boomers surveyed said they expect to buy or sell real estate
in the coming year. If that sample holds true throughout the age range, it would
generate almost 8 million sales over the next 12 months.
Robert and Joan Tufts, both 56, are among those second-home owners expecting to
complete the transition from their current location to their favorite vacation
locale — permanently and in the not-too-distant future.
Although their primary residence is in east Cobb County — a home they downsized
into after their last child moved away — they now split their time between
there and a beachfront condo near Sarasota, Fla. The Tuftses also have bought a
single-family home in the Sarasota area, where they plan to live full time after
Robert retires.
"We found something we liked in November and used our equity out of the condo to
put 1/8a down payment3/8 into the house," Joan Tufts said. "A lot of people we
know here are doing that."
The movement of Baby Boomers like the Tuftses and Dolls to new homes for their
current stage of life — and the purchase of possible retirement homes, which
often begin as vacation retreats — is a significant driving factor in today’s
real estate market, said Paul Bishop, the Realtors’ research manager.
"Because there are so many Baby Boomers in the leading edge 1/8of the age
demographic3/8, buying vacation homes is going to be a pretty strong part of the
market," Bishop said.
The survey also shows that boomers, who have ridden the recent real estate price
surge into prosperity, see such purchases as part of a sound financial strategy.
All but a paltry 4 percent of the survey respondents see homeownership as a good
investment.
Many Boomers are using additional real estate as part of their larger financial
strategy. In addition to their new home, for example, the Dolls own a Sandy
Springs condominium currently occupied by their son.
But as the good economic times of recent years appear to be waning, more Boomers
are worrying about whether they are prepared to live comfortably into the
extended retirement years many of them will experience, the survey shows.
Like many of the survey respondents, Dennis Doll doesn’t anticipate retiring at
age 65.
After being downsized out of an engineering job with a consulting company three
years ago, Doll has launched a second career as a real estate agent.
"I have a good 401(k), but it’s not enough," Doll said.
So, the survey has good news for Doll about his cohorts: Sixty percent of those
who have bought real estate and 80 percent of the sellers used a real estate
agent for the transaction.
SOURCE: RisMedia.com