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Baby Boomers Moving South

The Baby Boomers are hitting the age of retirement and with this comes the choice of moving to a warmer and calmer area of the US. Moving to areas such as Arizona or Florida will allow the Boomers to finally relax after years of stress from work, commuting and raising a family. But with so many Baby Boomers, warm states will soon be seeing a significant increase in their population, something some areas cannot afford. According to The Palm Beach Post, in Palm Beach, Florida, The chances are 50/50 that Boomers will trade their single-family home for a condo in the coming years, a major Palm Beach County, Florida developer told the International Builders Show. Today`s generation of workers are focused on family and social activities.

The demand for condos also is increasing because of that demographic bulge, the Baby Boomers. There are 78 million people between the ages of 41 and 60, Starkey said, with as many as 3 million turning 50 every year. They`re in their peak earning years, they`re going to inherit $1 trillion from parents and grandparents in the next decade and they`re out there buying homes. Growth is focused back to the urban core, which is driving the price of land through the roof because urban land is scarce.

With land costs so high, the only way to build affordable homes is to go vertical, he said. They are going to end up with a 50/50 mix of multifamily and single-family homes, which is a significant departure from past trends. In 2004, the ratio of condo sales to single-family homes was about 1-to-7, according to the annual U.S. Census housing survey. Of all homes nationwide, there are 15 single-family houses to every condominium. Nearly half of all people between the ages of 59 and 70 intend to move when they retire, according to a survey taken last year by Del Webb, which builds communities for "active adults." The main reason they`re moving: They want a home with less maintenance.