Baby Boomers Invading “Singles” Condos

May 14, 2007 – Build them and they will come – but be careful who does come. That was the gist of a May 11 Wall Street Journal article (“Animal House Meets the Empty Nest”) on what is happening in some of the new condo developments being built for “swinging singles”. It seems that some of these real estate developments are also seen as desirable by empty nesters over 50 – and that has some of the younger residents concerned. After all, they didn’t buy into the dream of roof-top hot tubs, on-site bars, and video game parlors to see a baby boomer on the next chaise lounge.

There appear to be a few reasons why this generation mismatch is happening. First, developments that are being marketed on the pricey side find that people over 50 are more likely to be able to have the price of admission. Another is that the singles orientation of these places is just as appealing to older singles who want to exit the suburbs as it is to younger folks.

The concept of designing condos to singles has taken off, with thousands of units sold. Some of the marketers are concerned, though, that their carefully targeted marketing is selling to the “wrong” demographic. Likewise, many of the younger people are not to happy to be living next door to someone with white hair. Meanwhile, you just can’t keep those baby boomers down.

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