SF Gate, January 22nd, 2006
For home builders, they are among the weightiest
questions for the next 20 years: Where will the Baby Boomers move when
they sell the homes where they’ve raised their families?
Will they opt for the stereotypical post-retirement
golf course communities so popular in the 1980s and ’90s? Will they
head for new beach and ski resort real estate developments? Or will
they downsize and move to a center city condo to maximize use of
cultural attractions and avoid long commutes?
With more than 70 million Boomers heading down the
demographic conveyor belt toward retirement — and the oldest of them
hitting 60 this year — no wonder these questions were prominent at the
National Association of Home Builders’ annual conference here Jan.
11-14.
Although consumer survey research has shown for
decades that homeowners in their 40s and 50s often have no detailed
plans to downsize or sell their houses, a new statistical study
unveiled at the convention suggests that the Boomers might have
different ideas.
