More baby boomers living in metro areas plan to retire closer to home because they’re not sure how they’ll pay for their golden years, according to a national survey to be released Tuesday by publicly traded homebuilder Pulte Homes.
As a result, retirement communities are popping up in cities not typically associated with fun in the sun – such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City.
Those metro areas instead have the jobs many boomers suspect they’ll need to maintain comfortable lifestyles, said Dave Schreiner, Pulte’s national vice president of active adult business development.
“More people moving into our communities want to work at some level and need to maintain professional contacts,” he said. “They’re not counting on Social Security to get by.”
Indeed, the survey of 1,802 people ages 41 to 69 found that most have no plans to rely solely on Social Security to make ends meet. Boomers are Americans ages 41 to 59.
Just more than half of those surveyed between the ages of 41 and 54 believe the federal retirement system is “in crisis.” Eighty-one percent of respondents ages 55 to 69 – many of whom now draw benefits – said they will fund their retirement using other sources of income.
Yet financial concerns about the future don’t appear likely to prevent the nation’s 77.5 million boomers – one of the wealthiest generations in American history – from buying new homes in retirement.
Forty-nine percent of boomers ages 41 to 49 said they plan to buy new retirement digs, while 50 percent of boomers ages 50 to 59 said they would do the same.
Pulte Homes acquired Del Webb, a developer of retirement communities since 1960, in 2001 to capitalize on that trend, Schreiner said. Del Webb’s home sales were 40 percent of the $11.7 billion in revenues Pulte generated last year, he said.
The company is building its first Colorado project in Broomfield. Anthem Ranch, just south of Colorado 7, will feature 1,500 homes as well as shops and restaurants. Homes priced between $200,000 and $400,000 are expected to hit the market in September.
Del Webb plans to develop similar communities in Colorado Springs and Denver in the next two years, Schreiner said.
The Del Webb projects follow other developments catering to retirees, such as Lennar/US Homes’ Heritage Eagle Bend in southeast Aurora, and Heritage Todd Creek in Thornton.
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-820-1015 or ctatum@denverpost.com.
