Boomers buy 1-story homes, but not the old cracker boxes
By NANCY MUELLER
For The Tennessean
There's a new housing product showing up in some neighborhoods: single-story homes designed to fulfill the needs of baby boomers.
These homes bear no resemblance to the low-profile, one-story ranches that many of the boomers grew up in during the '50s and '60s.
These new homes for empty-nesters are stylish and plush, with an emphasis on European-influenced architectural flourishes and open floor plans.
Fixtures, cabinets and flooring materials are high quality. This new version of one-level living also nearly always includes a second-story bonus room, so that most of these homes are technically 1½ stories tall.
Tennessee Valley Homes is one of the builders of this product. It has built one- and 1½-story homes in several Williamson County neighborhoods, including King's Chapel, Avalon, Tollgate Village, Glenellen and the Woodlands at Copperstone, said sales agent Rachel Work.
"We sold three one-stories in Copperstone this summer," she said while showing the builder's two-story Copperstone model home on Amethyst Lane. "We sell out of one-stories very quickly."
Next door is one of the company's unsold single-story homes. Although it may have been designed with downsizing in mind, at 3,885 square feet, it isn't all that small. And there's certainly nothing low-scale about the $679,900 asking price, either.
The kitchen has Viking Signature appliances, custom cabinetry and granite countertops. The master and secondary baths also have granite countertops. The upstairs bonus room, the only room on the second level, features a custom wet bar and a powder room.
Large footprint is costly
These homes are more expensive to build because they require, proportionally, more foundation, which can make the price per square foot higher.
Work said, however, that boomer buyers do not necessarily want to lose too much square footage when they downsize. They just want all of their bedrooms on one floor.
And they care about the exterior appearance of their new homes, eschewing anything that appears too squatty.
"I talked to one lady who wanted all of the bedrooms on one floor, but she wanted it to look like a two-story," Work said.
In Glenellen, under development in southeast Brentwood, Tennessee Valley Homes has built eight homes. Five have sold, and three of those feature all first-floor bedrooms. They were all snapped up by baby boomers with no children living at home, Work said.
"The other two were looking for one-story and ended up with two-story houses that have two bedrooms on the main level," she said. "They were baby boomers, too."
Demand is growing
Upscale homes for empty- nest baby boomers will constitute 8 to 10 percent of the national housing market over the next 18 years, market forecaster Edsel Charles said.
Charles' MarketGraphics Research Group, which is based in Franklin but makes market forecasts for clients in 20 states, has isolated the desires of empty-nesters moving from homes of at least 5,000 square feet and seeking a new home with a yard, as opposed to a townhouse or condo.
In the Nashville area alone, that translates into a probable need for 800 to 1,100 new, upscale empty nests per year, starting in 2008, Charles says.
By NANCY MUELLER
For The Tennessean
There's a new housing product showing up in some neighborhoods: single-story homes designed to fulfill the needs of baby boomers.
These homes bear no resemblance to the low-profile, one-story ranches that many of the boomers grew up in during the '50s and '60s.
These new homes for empty-nesters are stylish and plush, with an emphasis on European-influenced architectural flourishes and open floor plans.
Fixtures, cabinets and flooring materials are high quality. This new version of one-level living also nearly always includes a second-story bonus room, so that most of these homes are technically 1½ stories tall.
Tennessee Valley Homes is one of the builders of this product. It has built one- and 1½-story homes in several Williamson County neighborhoods, including King's Chapel, Avalon, Tollgate Village, Glenellen and the Woodlands at Copperstone, said sales agent Rachel Work.
"We sold three one-stories in Copperstone this summer," she said while showing the builder's two-story Copperstone model home on Amethyst Lane. "We sell out of one-stories very quickly."
Next door is one of the company's unsold single-story homes. Although it may have been designed with downsizing in mind, at 3,885 square feet, it isn't all that small. And there's certainly nothing low-scale about the $679,900 asking price, either.
The kitchen has Viking Signature appliances, custom cabinetry and granite countertops. The master and secondary baths also have granite countertops. The upstairs bonus room, the only room on the second level, features a custom wet bar and a powder room.
Large footprint is costly
These homes are more expensive to build because they require, proportionally, more foundation, which can make the price per square foot higher.
Work said, however, that boomer buyers do not necessarily want to lose too much square footage when they downsize. They just want all of their bedrooms on one floor.
And they care about the exterior appearance of their new homes, eschewing anything that appears too squatty.
"I talked to one lady who wanted all of the bedrooms on one floor, but she wanted it to look like a two-story," Work said.
In Glenellen, under development in southeast Brentwood, Tennessee Valley Homes has built eight homes. Five have sold, and three of those feature all first-floor bedrooms. They were all snapped up by baby boomers with no children living at home, Work said.
"The other two were looking for one-story and ended up with two-story houses that have two bedrooms on the main level," she said. "They were baby boomers, too."
Demand is growing
Upscale homes for empty- nest baby boomers will constitute 8 to 10 percent of the national housing market over the next 18 years, market forecaster Edsel Charles said.
Charles' MarketGraphics Research Group, which is based in Franklin but makes market forecasts for clients in 20 states, has isolated the desires of empty-nesters moving from homes of at least 5,000 square feet and seeking a new home with a yard, as opposed to a townhouse or condo.
In the Nashville area alone, that translates into a probable need for 800 to 1,100 new, upscale empty nests per year, starting in 2008, Charles says.
No comments:
Post a Comment