- Woodlands, Energy Corridor, Greenspoint Suffer Office Occupancy Drops in Third Quarter, Finds PM Realty [HBJ]
- CBRE To Begin Preleasing Skanska USA’s Capitol Tower, On Hold Downtown [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Stream Realty: Active-Adult Apartments an ‘Incredible’ Market in Houston [HBJ]
- Rise Communities Completes Amenity Village in Master-Planned Community Meridiana [HBJ]
- Plans In the Works To Restore 50-Year-Old Jones Hall [Houston Public Media]
- I-45 Ranked Second-Deadliest Highway in U.S. by ValuePenguin [Houston Chronicle]
- What Houston Brewers Looks for in Real Estate Space [The Leader]
- A Brief History of The Woodlands [Bisnow]
Photo of Highland Village: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Don’t understand the rationale for these active adult communities. If your house is paid off, your property taxes are capped (or will be soon), and your neighborhood is appreciating in value, why would you go back to renting? If you’re worried about maintenance, you can hire a maid and a yard guy for a fraction of what your rent would be. If you want to be closer to inner-loop amenities – it doesn’t look like these far-suburban communities would get you there.
I just don’t get it. I’m guessing that the target market doesn’t get it either, which might explain why these age-restricted apartments are relatively rare.
Grant, senior living comes in three basic flavors:
indepentant living, which includes active adult communities
Assisted living (RN’s on site)
Skilled nursing (nursing homes)
They are all over town, you must be young
A church in my area is planning to erect a 4-story active 55+ residence with ~100 units, on its property, in the midst of a residential area. The developer-partners say there is need for something that is not assisted living or full-time nursing. They say most residents will be from nearby, who like the area, but not the hassles of home ownership. Some residents of the neighborhood are not amused.
Yea, Grant – one reaches an age where you are healthy but tired of the hassles of home ownership and generally tired, period. I can’t wait to take the cash outa my 100 year old house and move into an apartment and just make a call when something needs to be fixed.
Jones hall was designed to be a multi-use civic center. The honeycomb ceiling moves up and down to make the hall bigger and smaller depending on the use. It works well for just about everything other than orchestra performances. The hall really needs to be completely gutted and redesigned from scratch to be a true orchestra hall. The track record on orchestra hall renovations is pretty bad. Cleveland’s Severance Hall was renovated to remove George Szell’s minimalist wood shell on the stage and make the stage more ornate like the rest of the hall. The result was visually appealing, but there has been nearly constant fidgeting and tweaking to try to match the previously perfect acoustics. Avery Fisher in NY is more like Houston in that major renovations tried to fix terrible acoustics. Millions of dollars on major renovations and super secret re-renovations using the best architects and acousticians in the world have failed to produce any improvements. But Jones Hall may be so bad that anything that happens will be better.
Crosscreek, my understanding is that the Stream Realty-proposed apartment complexes fall only into the first category that you mentioned. Quote from the article: “It’s a market that’s just beginning to be built and developed.” My point is that there’s probably good reasons why we haven’t seen more of these communities. I don’t deny the importance of assisted-living facilities and nursing homes, which serve a different market with different needs.
Many 55+ empty nesters want to relocate to be closer to their kids / grandkids in the suburbs, and don’t want a lot of maintenance / yard work hassle with their home. That’s probably the biggest market for these age-restricted suburban rental communities.
@Thryallis and there is already a big, as in yuge, senior development planned for S main.
I would love to click on a link leading to solid information about this oft-mentioned ‘yuge’ senior project on Buffalo Speedway and So. Main. But I can’t find one. And the property is still listed ‘for sale’.
Think about the active adult market this way:
1) If you’re looking for empty nesters with enough money to rent new specialized multifamily housing, you look to the suburbs.
2) Somebody that has lived in the suburbs for a couple of decades or thereabouts tends to have a lot of friends nearby. They might have a church they go to or other anchors to the community they live in.
3) They don’t need an extra two, three, or four bedrooms. They don’t need a yard.
4) Property taxes and HOA dues, even if they’re frozen, could easily still amount to a five-figure annual expense; if they’ve lived in the same house for a couple-ish of decades while their kids were in school, the house is probably beginning to require regular repair and maintenance.
5) The house could be rented or the house could be sold; either way, it’s a more efficient use of an asset where only one or two people are concerned. Downsizing is a reduction of opportunity cost.
6) For singles, divorcees, and widowers, I’d imagine that the singles scene is more impressive than some young whipper-snapper might otherwise imagine.
“acousticians”? Who knew?
I have to agree with the others who see value in these 55+ active adult communities. Once the big house is paid for and the kids have moved out, one may not want to deal with roof repairs, home renovations, or yard care – even if one hires people to do it.
.
Some communities offer a spectrum: independent living, assisted living, and nursing home options, which can be great as one needs increasing help without having to move again. Personally, I’m open to one of these spots when I get in the target zone.
There is definitely a market for active adult communities. For those retired and wanting to travel, there is no hassle about leaving an empty house and maintaining it while you are gone. You just have to find one that fills your needs. Some are just apartment complexes for seniors so they don’t have kids running about. Activities are geared towards the older adult. Great for the truly active adults who want a relaxed, carefree lifestyle.
The full spectrum communities can be costly. Basically, you buy into it, like a condominium, and pay monthly service fees. These service fees usually include 1 meal per person daily, maid weekly, and may include a monthly ‘account’ to drawn from for on-site salon, on-site ‘market’ for limited food supplies, and car/van service to doctors and shopping. They also have fitness rooms, physical therapy, craft activities, board games, guest lectures, and music or movies. My mother is in a full spectrum community, and her service fees are $1500/month. But if she becomes unable to care for herself, she gets first in-line for the assisted living rooms or full nursing care rooms in another section of the facility.