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Lennar is one of the homebuilders highlighted in this article about how active adult communities can ease the transition for those who are moving out of homes they’ve owned for years, and into a completely new lifestyle.
Saying farewell to the family home – so full of memories – can be the most trying part of moving to an active-adult 55-plus community lifestyle where snow shovels and lawn mowers are traded for amenities like an indoor pool and fitness center.
However, there’s no need to despair. Representatives of these active adult communities understand their senior buyer and have programs in place to assist at various stages in the relocation process.
At Lennar Homes, a national builder of active 55-plus adult homes from Rockaway Township to Ware-town in South Jersey, a speedy sale is best delivered with a substantial inventory of new construction homes ready and waiting for buyers.
“We’ve got one of every type of home, at least one of every design,” said Jay Goldberg, director of sales for Lennar. “If they have sold their homes, we give them something to move into within 60 days, sometimes 30 days.”
To further ease the transition for its buyers, Lennar Homes has come up with a “kinder, gentler process” where everything’s included. “We don’t sell options,” Goldberg explained, although buyers can choose from two or three color packages. Because everything’s included, options do not vary the price of a home. “If they visit a community, they can know the exact price of a home on that day.”
The balance sheet of households with real estate in the U.S. is continuing to improve, as home prices continue to increase across the nation. A new report from the National Association of Homebuilders highlights how these improvements, along with further improvements to the job market, could release pent-up housing demand.
The real estate equity position of U.S. households (the difference between assets and liabilities) increased nearly 2.4% for the quarter, according to NAHB tabulations of the fourth quarter Federal Reserve Flow of Funds.
The improvement in the balance sheet of U.S. households means fewer underwater homeowners, thereby unlocking housing supply and demand.
When picking a new place to call home, one of the most important attributes of a community is providing equal educational and economic opportunities for all people to get ahead, according to more than 90% of the respondents of the most recent Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll.
As reported in The Atlantic, more than three-fourths of the Heartland Monitor poll respondents thought that locations that included ethnic and racial diversity were a key factor for good communities.
In addition to asking people what elements made a city or town a good place to live, the poll also asked Americans how they felt their communities were performing on these measures. Seventy-four percent of Americans felt like their area was a place where all people had the opportunity for advancement.
A new article from U.S. News looks at the sizes of new homes being built today, and how the newest data suggests an increasing number of first-time buyers entering the market.
During the post-recession period, builders of new single-family homes have constructed homes for the demand that exists, which has been disproportionately higher-end buyers, who are more likely to have savings for a down payment and the income necessary to support a mortgage. Coming out of the recession, the typical size of a newly built single-family home rose approximately 16 percent to 2,438 square feet. However, that rise in size appears to have ended in 2014. In fact, the typical newly built home in 2014 (2,414 square feet) was smaller than the 2013 estimate (2,460 square feet).
Consequently, the 2014 data suggest a new dynamic may be on the horizon, with increasing numbers of entry-level buyers entering the market. As these prospective buyers appear in greater numbers, expect the median size of newly built homes to fall as the market mix shifts back to a more normal composition of buyers.
Selling your home? Your prospective buyers can help you. This new article from Bankrate shares some helpful advice for home sellers about listening and responding to feedback from home shoppers.
When homeowners in College Station, Texas, were told by an agent that prospective buyers were too scared to tour their home because their dog was barking aggressively, the homeowners opted to send their dog to live with their adult kids until the house was sold. While not all sellers react as decisively as those homeowners, most find feedback extremely valuable, says Jan Fite Miller, executive vice president of Century 21 Judge Fite in Irving, Texas.
Often, a home seller will ask the agent what visitors say about the home’s condition and sales price. And sometimes there are complaints. Just how valuable those comments are depends on what’s said, who’s saying it and why. Valuable comments are those that help the sellers improve their sales chances.
Miller says that sellers should listen to all feedback to evaluate how to respond, particularly if their home is languishing on the market.
In a recent National Association of Realtors survey, 75% of first-time homebuyers said they had compromised on their home purchase, most commonly on the size and price.
When it’s time to search for a starter home, many young – and not so young – people quickly discover that their budget won’t cover their dream home. That means making tough choices and doing some serious thinking about what matters: Will granite countertops make you happier than living 15 minutes closer to work? Is a third bedroom worth giving up a second car? Is living in your dream neighborhood more important than having a yard?
Most experts agree that if you buy a home, you need to make sure you can live in it for at least five years, and maybe longer. This new article from U.S. News outlines five things first-time homebuyers should consider as they begin their new home search.
According to a new article from The New York Times, there are several economic indicators suggesting a widening path to homeownership among the millennial generation in the next few years.
The job market was particularly unkind to young adults during the recession. Between 2007 and 2010, the unemployment rate within this group soared to 14 percent. As of January, the millennial unemployment rate was down to 9.3 percent.
Researchers at the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate in Los Angeles say that even though job levels haven’t fully recovered, new household formation – which cratered during the recession – is back up to pre-recession levels.
And saving enough for a down payment is often the biggest challenge for first-time home buyers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have lowered that bar, however, with new conforming loan programs requiring as little as 3 percent down. Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration are also more affordable, thanks to recent reductions in mortgage insurance premiums.
A new article from MarketWatch outlines some helpful advice for retirees looking to move to a new home. But don’t wait until retirement to have a plan.
While many retirees express a desire to “age in place,” that doesn’t necessarily mean staying put in their current home; indeed, what they’re really saying is they want to live out their lives not in a care facility, but in a home of their own that suits their needs.
Retirees might move closer to grandchildren, or to an apartment that requires less maintenance. They might even ‘upsize’: three in 10 retirees who moved in retirement relocated to a larger home, according to a recent survey.
When a health crisis forces an older person to move, there are other parties involved in the decision-making, from adult children to hospital discharge planners, insurance companies and more. If you want to move on your own terms, have a plan and don’t wait too long to act on it, experts say.
The mid-50s are a good age to begin thinking about long-term plans for retirement, including living arrangements, experts say. That leaves plenty of time to make a plan and implement it while you’re still likely to be enjoying good health.
According to a new article from Builder, the words “city” and “suburbs” don’t mean what they used to. Today, builders are finding that home buyers in search of an urban lifestyle aren’t married to living downtown, preferring the lifestyle itself over the idea of actually living in the city.
“Walkable urbanism” – a term coined by Christopher Leinberger, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and George Washington University professor – isn’t new, but it’s red hot.
A 2014 report from the university counted 558 walkable urban places, or WalkUPs, in the country’s 30 largest metropolitan areas, including D.C. As much as one-third of New York’s and Boston’s office and retail space is within walking distance of residences, the report says, and Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Denver are moving in that direction. Homeowners and tenants in WalkUPs can reach their jobs, schools, restaurants, and other daily destinations on foot.
