Builders and Baby Boomers

Good day readers,

Interesting insights to the booming baby-boomer market in today’s article from the Denver Post. It seems builders are being challenged more than ever to create amenity-rich, well priced properties in great locations for the huge baby-boomer real estate market.

Its no different in Crested Butte and Gunnison Colorado. With the recent boom in real estate development in our ski resort community, baby boomers have arrived and seem to be plunking down huge amounts of cash for homes in and around Mt. Crested Butte. But, the winner in our market right now is vacant land.  Spending over a million dollars on vacant land, whether it is a .70 acre parcel at Prospect or a large 35+ acre ranch parcel in one of rural Crested Butte’s ranch communities, is par for the course. Baby boomer investors coming to Crested Butte are picky and seem to be very willing to pay top dollar for a piece of dirt in a great location next to great amenities like skiing and golf. They want to build the house of their retirement dreams rather than pick up something that is already built.

Thanks for visiting today,

Channing @ Crested-Butte-Real-Estate.com

Daily Real Estate News  |  May 8, 2007

Boomers: Great Prospects, Tough Sell

Despite their estimated spending power of $2 trillion and their prospects for inheriting as much as $7 trillion more from their parents, baby boomers are a tough sell for builders.

The 55-and-older-segment will buy one of every five new homes sold in 2007, spending more than $100 million in the process. But helping them find the right mix of price, amenities, and location that will prompt them to buy can be a challenge.

"The 50-plus demographic has the cash. They have the equity. Their consumer confidence seems to be higher than your typical move-up family, where interest rates are everything," says Rich Larsen, vice president of operations for John Laing Homes, which revamped its business strategy in 2003 to focus 50 percent of its efforts on the boomer market. "Price doesn’t necessarily kill the deal, but it takes them longer to make a decision. Boomers are persistent. They want what they want."

Source: Denver Post, Jan Thomas (05/06/07)