Eco-Homes for Baby Boomers

PR snaps sell green dream

It is one of the few growth trends in the construction industry right now.

The aging cohort that has dominated our culture for the past forty years is not yet off-grid, but many are now looking for “communities that make an environmental difference,” according to Shea Homes a construction firm in Massachusetts. Last month, Shea announced the first of a planned chain of “active lifestyle,” Baby Boomer retirement developments.

A December 2007 survey by AARP found that roughly half of all Boomers see themselves as environmental stewards. Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, grew up alongside the environmental movement of the 1960s and ’70s. “These guys were at Woodstock,” said Matthew Kahn, a professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment. “This is the birth cohort that was at the environmental movement’s summer of love.”
Located in classic third age country, between Orlando and Daytona Beach, Fla., the homes are advertised as having a carbon footprint 20-30% less than a typical household.
Eco-friendly and energy-wise, the homes feature solar attic fans, green-fiber recycled insulation, motion-sensor triggered lighting, energy-efficient windows and appliances and garages with electric-vehicle charging stations.
Shea says it has focused on small, incremental green features that will add up to important energy savings.
Shea’s debut in the Florida retirement market will be followed by similar homes in California, Arizona and Washington. Other retirement communities from Texas to Maine are taking similar steps and adding green features to existing homes. An Army retirement community in San Antonio recently announced plans to install solar hot water systems in its 180 homes.
Sea Coast Management Co., which manages retirement communities in Maine, is offering residents incentives to install solar water heaters and offering a Toyota Prius and/or a free solar hot water system to those buying a home.
In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were approximately 78.2 million Baby Boomers in America.
Besides being a large swath of the population, Boomers are overwhelmingly homeowners.
Boomers are also far more affluent than earlier generations of retirees, making it more likely that they will consider paying a premium for environmentally friendly housing features.
Builders have been studying Boomers and while this generation is far from homogenous, the industry sees some evidence that today’s new wave of environmental concerns and rising energy costs will factor into Boomers’ housing decisions. Shea started advertising its green active-lifestyle homes in January 2008.
How green do Boomers want to go when it comes to housing?
So far, they seem to want to enjoy high-end living but they are interested in using less energy in the process.
“What Baby Boomers are looking for is the Lexus hybrid” rather than the Prius, Andreen said. “Baby Boomers are focused first on what they want.”
Shea’s homes are trying to tap this niche, blending luxury with energy efficiency, according to the company. The homes include energy-efficient appliances and insulated windows combined alongside gourmet kitchens and master suites that resemble a “spa-like sanctuary.”
And like plenty of Florida retirement communities, these homes are tucked amid hundreds of acres of parkland and sport an 18-hole golf club and a tennis center.
Boomers interested in a resort-like setting that has some claim to being green are likely to be “well-educated, rich and Barbra Streisand fans,” Kahn said.
They are also going to be looking for like-minded neighbors and a community that values the same things they do, he added.
Energy efficiency is one topic that Boomers are willing to pay a premium for in housing, Andreen said. The green options that now come with Shea’s retirement homes add about 5 to 8 percent onto the cost of a home.
“They will claim in survey data that they are willing to pay more” but they haven’t displayed that, he added.
“People are still making up their mind about what they think about these [green] products and what they are willing to pay,” Kahn said.
Shea says these homes achieve a 50 percent reduction in the therms associated with heating water, 75 percent reduction in energy from lighting, 40 percent reduction in energy used from clothes washers and a 41 percent reduction energy used by dishwashers.