Market the Community and the Development
Many of the traditional, well established retirement destinations are becoming less attractive to mature home buyers. In some areas the severe storms of recent years have left in their wake skyrocketing insurance costs and worries about the next storm season. Other traditional areas have grown too large and too expensive for many mature home buyers. More and more, today’s mature home buyers are looking for alternative destinations which offer the amenities they desire. This change and the growing number of relocating retirees are providing an opportunity for new retirement destinations to emerge from those communities which can successfully "get on the map."
Developments located in vacation destinations -- Myrtle Beach, Branson, and Las Vegas come immediately to mind – have a
Given the large number of mature housing developments available today and with more being developed each year, few, if any, potential buyers are going to make a significant journey just to see yet another new mature development, no matter how well planned and designed it is unless they feel some attraction to the community first.
Typically, developments that market their home to mature home buyers without first marketing their community will attract buyers only from those already familiar with the community – those buyers who have already pre-selected the community. With the exception of a few adventurous or wayward vacationers, their pool of potential buyers is from within the local area.
While there may be enough potential mature home buyers in the area surrounding a new development to make it a success, the vast majority of potential buyers do not live in the area. This is especially true in the Southern states. Mature adults who currently live in the South are probably going to remain in the South after they retire. However, the vast majority of mature adults live in the rust belt (Illinois to Massachusetts). Most of them will not move far from home when they retire, but enough of them will so that communities and developments that are able to attract them will have a distinct advantage.
This raises the question of how to cost effectively reach these potential mature home buyers. The answer lies in understanding why today’s mature adults choose to move where they do. Unlike their parents, baby boomers are not looking for a warm place to idle away their final years. They are, after all, no longer senior citizens, but active adults! They are looking for amenities they have grown to expect and opportunities to pursue an avocation or hobby, or give their time through volunteer services. Thus a development can focus its marketing efforts on what the community has to offer and the ways the development compliments the community’s amenities. Once attracted to the community by its amenities, a mature home buyer can focus on selecting a home.
The SeniorStat suite of services from TW+A provides a solution to communities that want to get on the map and opens the way for developers to market their houses to the most receptive mature adults. We tell you not only what a community’s amenity strengths and weaknesses are compared to its competitors, but also how mature adult most likely to relocate to your community feel about these amenities. And then, equally important, we tell you the market areas where mature adults most likely to respond to a targeted marketing campaign live. Thus, TW+A provides the mature market research that helps mature home buyers pre-select your community and experience what your development has to offer them.
-Gene Warren
Retirees Turn Green Economic Development Into Gold
There is more to being ‘green’ than most people realize, especially in the economic development realm. The most common definition of green economic development is, “creating economic growth (jobs, wealth, tax base and so on) while being friendly to the big blue marble”. Not untrue, however, a larger definition looms and is typically built on three idealizations: sustainability for the economy, sustainability for the environment, and social equity.
The definitions of sustainability for the economy and the environment are easy enough to understand. Essentially the idea is to keep the economic engine humming while the natural environment is not harmed but is replenished at the same rate as it is consumed. The least recognized component is social equity. Social equity, in this context, is the need to provide jobs for all citizens of a community regardless of training, ethnicity, language, and such. Quality of life for all stakeholders within a community should be preserved to complete the green economic development program.
Recently towns of all sizes have concentrated their efforts on creating bio-tech centers or research parks to promote their green economic development initiatives. While these types of economic development endeavors meet the first two components of green economic development they fail in the area of social equity. Bio-tech businesses and research parks require a large number of highly educated scientists, researchers, and technical staff. In many communities the local workforce is not equipped to participate in the jobs within the bio-tech sector. Unqualified local labor is forced out of the community to find employment. Conversely, qualified labor to fill the bio-tech jobs commutes into the community from afar.
The best approach for green economic development is to attract industry that will provide social equity for all segments of the population. Enter retiree attraction as a viable option to bring opportunity to everyone within the community. Of course retirees are not the typical brick and mortar economic development avenues most cities consider. But they should. Our research has consistently demonstrated that one retiree household moving to a town creates over two jobs. Since retirees by definition are ‘retired’ they do not work, but still consume goods and services. We like to call them permanent tourists. Retiree consumption creates further demand for, well, almost everything. Herein lies the beauty of retirees and their contribution to the social equity equation. The demand is not only for grocery clerks, but for professional jobs as well. Consider the career opportunities available when a bank is opening. Starting from the top, we have the branch manager, accountants, auditors, division specialists (loans, investments, and small business), and tellers. All of these positions require varying levels of education and, perhaps more importantly, provide a career path. The jobs created at all skill levels provide the additional benefit of keeping younger generations in the community, especially rural ones.
As the green industry gains momentum, government and private industry are learning that ‘going green’ is good for the bottom line. Retirees provide sustainable economic development while not weighing heavily on our environment. And most significantly, the presence of retirees in your community supplies a bright and equitable future for everyone. I invite you, to invite the permanent tourists to take up residence in your town and watch as the retirees turn green economic development into gold.
–Alan Church