Housing Market Trends Influenced by Baby Boomers

Active Adult New Homes

What's ahead for the housing market?

According to Bankrate.com, homeowners and homebuyers should watch four trends:

1. Echo boomers' entry into their peak home buying years,
2. Baby boomers' entry into their peak home-selling years,
3. The new demand for smaller homes, and
4. The new demand for more energy-efficient homes.

New homes to be compact, energy-efficient

In relation to trends #3 and #4, smaller homes may be in greater demand as the population ages due to the baby boomers. Empty-nesters will need one spare bedroom for visiting grandchildren opposed to four bedrooms for growing teenagers. Smaller homes are also cheaper and easier to maintain and should be less costly to heat and cool.

A National Association of Home Builders report, "Home of the Future," states that the size of new single-family homes reached a 35-year record of more than 2,400 square feet in 2006. But that growth spurt isn't expected to continue into this decade. Instead, the average size of a new home will range from about 2,300 to 2,500 square feet in 2015.

Future new homes will be more compact, more efficiently designed in their use of space and richer in amenities inside the home and nearby in the neighborhood. These trends are seen as another likely result of an aging population and the push toward more efficient land use.

New homes also will be more energy-efficient in terms of windows, doors, insulation and even site planning due to concerns about climate change and the need to reduce energy consumption and emissions.

View energy-efficient, new homes for active adults here.