50+ Housing e-Source - 02/28/2006 (Plain Text Version)

Norman Cohen
Chairman

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In this issue:
Boomers Are Changing America's Housing Landscape
Get Designation Credit at 50+ Housing Symposium
Make Your Plans for NAHB’s Spring Board Meeting
2006 50+ Housing Council Chairs and Trustees
Directory of Accessible Building Products Released
Research: Retirees Behind on Saving
50+ Housing In The News
NAHB News and Notes
Got A Story for the 50+ Housing eSource?

Boomers Are Changing America's Housing Landscape

Building for Boomers & Beyond: The 50+ Housing Symposium 2006 is thrilled to have as its keynote speaker Neil Howe, a prominent expert on generational issues and author of the best-selling books Generations, 13th Gen, and Fourth Turning. In his talk, Howe will offer a grand tour through generations in America — with emphasis on today’s recent and emerging generations of mature home owners. 50+ Housing e/Source recently had the pleasure of interviewing Howe on his topic of expertise.

Note: Howe refers to today’s older generations as the G.I. Generation (born 1901-1925), the Silent Generation (born 1925-1942) and the Boomers (born 1943-1960).

1. What are the biggest differences in the current generations who are now in retirement? What do builders need to know about these unique generations?

The G.I. generation invented “retirement” as a one-size-fits-all reward after a lifetime of service. The Silent Generation took that idea and personalized it, taking retirement it to extraordinary levels of affluence and luxury. Boomers, who are facing new economic pressures (less savings and fewer safety nets, especially at the younger edge), plan to keep working longer, and want to stay near family and community. They feel uncomfortable with the very word “retirement.”

2. What key emotional messages do these generations respond to and what motivates them as consumers?

The ideal G.I. community is big, friendly, conventional, and civic-minded. It’s also often age-segregated. After the “Generation Gap” of the 1970s, when their “wholesome” culture was bitterly rejected by their Boomer kids, the G.I.s decided they’d rather live on their own. The Silent generation responds to messages that are more sophisticated, exotic, educational, and choice-oriented. They often want to be around younger people and contribute. Boomers, who came of age during the Consciousness Revolution, are self-sufficient individualists who seek meaningful lifestyles and experiences. They care less about contributing to their community than about discovering their authentic “inner core,” the story that inspires or justifies their lives.

3. What are the common mistakes that marketers make when marketing to older consumers? What are things that builders should (and should not) do?

The big mistake they make about consumers in their '60s and '70s today is not recognizing them as a distinct generation. The Silent Generation, the children of the Depression and World War II, are very different from the G.I.s. They don’t like to be called senior citizens. Since the 1960s, they have been energized by (and have often led) the artistic and cultural and social movements of younger Boomers, they spearheaded the divorce revolution in the 1970s when they invented the famous “midlife passage,” and a rapidly growing number (almost 300,000) are unmarried couples. They love the exotic and unconventional, though they still have led mostly risk-averse lives. They are not G.I.s — but they aren’t Boomers, either. They are often very progressive in their views on race or gender roles. They might want to take courses at the nearby college or be a docent at a children’s museum, but might be bothered by the sound of hip-hop or teenagers living next door. Most marketers are blind to this important generation. They think somehow America went directly from World War II veterans to postwar Boomers!

Marketers often get Boomers wrong by overrating their materialism and penchant for fun and risk (often implied with terms like “Zoomers”), and by underrating their strong attachment to their families and local neighborhoods, as well as their spiritualism (of either the new age or evangelical variety), along with their serious quest to experience and capture what is classic, valued, and enduring in life. This has vast implications for new housing, from style and room design to choice of materials.

4. How do these generations differ in their attitudes toward family, retirement, health, leisure, finances and risk?

G.I.s dramatically lowered the retirement age, upheld family conventions, and have looked to Big Government to cure their health problems and insure them against risk. The Silent Generation, who are retiring at a historically young age, want to stay healthy via new technology, physician choice, and plenty of expert information. They pretend to take risks, but have always been the best insured (and economically rewarded) of all generations. Many have tried to reconnect with their grown Generation X and Boomer children. According to all of the survey data, Boomers are about to trigger a rapid rise in the retirement age — mainly because they simply can’t afford to retire any time soon. They have taken more economic and family risks than the Silent Generation, and their wealth and income distribution is much more spread out, yet most are experiencing a stronger relationship with their coming-of-age Millennial Generation children. These grown-up “trophy kids” will be a major presence in the lives of Boomers throughout their old age.

5. What impact do you think the Boomers will have on housing in the coming decades?

A few big trends: From first wave (born in the mid-1940s) to last (born around 1960), Boomers will be less affluent on average and be more “spread out” economically upon reaching their mid-60s. This will be reflected in more value-conscious housing choices for the average elder — yet still plenty of opportunities for the super-luxury set. Boomers will contribute to the development of “Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities,” or NORCs, as they will want to stay near their local neighborhoods and near their grown kids. Because most will be working after their “post-family” home shift, many will also want to stay near their workplaces — though digital networks will free many affluent Boomers to remain “workers” in wilderness locales.

Boomer retirement communities will be less planned. Boomers won’t go to nursing facilities; those facilities will come to them. Many of course will want to be around cultural activities, universities and schools, restaurants and urban rituals. They will be less civic and sociable, less attracted by large clubhouses and busy group schedules. They will want ownership and personal control over their stuff. Most will want plenty of untamed space — or at least access to it. They will care deeply about the myth and story underlying their community. Just as G.I.s, deep in old age, still retained a deep interest in politics and energized such powerful benefit lobbies as AARP, Boomers, deep in old age, will retain a deep interest in the culture—and will see themselves as shaping the culture for the benefit of younger generations. Even hospices will advertise “themes.” Midlife Gen Xers will make fun of them, but Boomers won’t care.

Neil Howe’s keynote address at the 50+ Housing Symposium will be on Tuesday, April 25, at 8:00 am. The Symposium will be held in Phoenix, Ariz., at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort April 24-26. For more information, or to register for the Symposium, click here.