Boomers Aren't Choosing Urban Retirement

TOMORROWS HOUSING TODAY: Check Out These Lovely Modular Homes and Then Read Our Post and The Attached Article From Realtor.com. Modular and Manufactured Housing Is The Affordable Choice To Make Today.

I wanted to share this post and the attached Realtor.org article below with the AR community. I was just thinking about this on my last trip to Fort Meyers, Fl and the last San Diego Padre Home Game at Petco Park in downtown San Diego. I couldn't help but notice all the partly to almost completely empty hi-rise condo developments in these two very vital urban communities.

A very good friend of mine purchased a condo in Little Italy, a Burroughs of the downtown San Diego community, in 2004 at the height of the market. He told me that he could well afford the loss in value because he bought it for his daughter who went to USD an now works in the downtown area and continues to live there. However, what he didn't factor into the equation was the fact that so many still sit empty, unsold and/or foreclosed on; Almost 50% in his case.

Now he and the remaining owners all have to share the amortized cost of the POA maintenance and in so doing have had to relinquish most if not all of the amenities and perks that originally went along with the original purchase and as were promised by the CC&R's.

So long to the concierge service, the valet service, 24 hour armed security patrol and manned and gated entry and exit station, the in house fitness center, beauty salon, massage service, auto detail and car care service, the airport shuttle service, in house grocery shopping and delivery service, window cleaning service, personal trash carry out service, and the list goes on and on and on.

Hello to maintaining all the empty unsold units, paying a premium for parking in a dimly lit and un secured parking structure, having to carry your groceries and myriad shopping items from that parking structure to the elevator and up to your  condo. Then throw in the taxes on the entire project that will have to be shared by the remaining owners because the developer and/or the bank is throwing in the towell do to all the canceled sales and foreclosures and you've got one hell of a mess.

Sure there's some great deals in these hi-rise condos now. But you had better do your due diligence very diligently or you could be in for one huge and costly reality check. No wonder you can't get many aging boomers stepping up to the plate when everything that once made these communities so tempting have evaporated from the landscape.

Is it any wonder why these beautiful single and multi-story state-of-the-art manufactured and modular homes and the relatively affordable property that goes with them are looking so tempting nowadays? With financing so much more readily available than ever before I think we will see a major growth industry in Manufactured Housing in the next wave of real estate activity.

My advice is to get ready now. Start getting to know the Manufactured Home Builders, Dealers and Contractors in your neighborhoods. If you need help trying to locate a reliable and honest dealer and/or contractor please feel free to contact us anytime. Our services are free to Active Rain members. This is our way of reaching out to the AR community.

Please take a moment to view the link below and by all means do pass it on to any of your potential clients; Boomers or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sijs4ma3Xd0&feature=related

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<!-- BEGIN RICH-MEDIA ADCONDUCTOR CODE --> <!-- END ADCONDUCTOR CODE --> Daily Real Estate News  |  October 12, 2009  |   Share Boomers Aren't Choosing Urban Retirement Part of the prevailing wisdom of the now-late-lamented housing boom was the theory that baby boomers were ready to trade in their suburban ranch houses for an urban retreat, thus saving themselves from lawn maintenance and automobiles. Now many of the condos that were built in urban centers in anticipation of that happening are sitting vacant. “Someone who grew up living in 2,500 square feet with a driveway leading up to the front door isn't going to downsize to 850 square feet until he's ready for assisted living," says Joel Kotkin, a scholar on urban development who wrote The City: A Global History. "The new urbanists convinced the idiot development community there was going to be this massive move that never happened." Do these empty buildings further doom the future of cities? Maybe not. "I wouldn't write off a storybook ending yet," says University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. "It just depends on how many chapters it takes to get there."     Source: Orlando Sentinel, Mike Thomas (10/11/2009) Browse all of today's news <!-- FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000">E-mail to a friend</FONT --> <!-- FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000">Give us feedback</FONT -->