Market Trends: Carolinas attract “halfbacks” and “boomers”

An emerging housing trend among seniors has given “halfback” a new meaning.

Senior housing insiders use the term to describe retirees who moved to Florida from northern states, then relocated halfway back to the Carolinas because they found Florida’s weather too hot or the state too crowded, industry figures say.

“North Carolina is fifth in the country in getting other states’ retirees,” says Dan Owens, senior housing consultant for builders and towns, Carolina’s Active Retirement Association.

Florida has always been the “800-pound gorilla” of retirement destinations, but that’s changing now. North and South Carolina combined now receive more relocating retirees than Florida, Owens said.

That’s just one difference between today’s aging baby boomer and yesterday’s seniors, known as the G.I. Generation. Don’t bother looking for similarities in the two when it comes to retirement housing.

Baby boomers shape future housing trends by location, lifestyle

The size of the baby boomer generation — roughly 78 million people born from 1946-64 — puts this generation’s habits on everyone’s radar.

Baby boomers now entering their retirement years are the healthiest and wealthiest group to ever hit this life stage. These seniors will place heavy emphasis on affordability when making retirement housing decisions. People are moving in vast numbers to the Carolinas because of affordable homes, and seniors are among them.

Today’s seniors don’t want to discuss “aging” or “retirement” in those terms and home builders have caught on – creating a burgeoning market for active adult communities that offer seniors physical activities, a sense of community and homes that will accommodate them as they age in more subtle ways than the intrusive steel railings and chair lifts built into yesterday’s senior homes.

Source: Jessica Swesey, Inman News