Majority of baby boomers are staying in their homes

Not long after I slid into the chair of the editor of the Calgary Sun new homes magazine, I was invited to attend a city planners’ convention in Canmore as a panelist to discuss growth and future developments.

The planners, several hundred in number, came from towns and cities all across Canada and were, for the most part, not that far removed from having recently received their planning degrees and certifications.

Yes, they were quite young. And idealistic.

At the time, urbanization was the big idea with these city planners, who eschewed the way cities had grown since the mid-1950s.

They championed the demise of suburbs, getting quite worked up about the evils of urban sprawl.

I was asked to make an opening statement before the panel discussions began and said, paraphrasing, if the assembled planners believed urban sprawl was evil, then they must also believe that providing new homes that young couples could afford, homes with yards where their kids could play, in new, safer neighbourhoods, were also evil.

Clever of me, I thought, until I looked out at the group, and saw them all nodding in agreement.

Seeing this was going to be an uphill battle, I decided the best approach, and safest in that I was outnumbered, was to spend most of the rest of the day listening.

This was when PlanIt Calgary was being debated and ultimately passed into law by the city council of the time.

A tenet of PlanIt was the baby boomers, as they aged, would sell their homes in the ’burbs and move en masse to inner-city, multi-family homes.

Another tenet was younger folks would prefer to live inner city, because that’s where all the action was.

As a result, the architects of PlanIt and those who passed it into law decreed the mixture of building permits approved henceforth would favour multi-family homes in established neighbourhoods.

The group of planners gathered in Canmore that day fully embraced these ideals, not necessarily because they made any sense, but because they fell in line with their own ideology.

How I wished that day that I had a report of some merit, showing the tenets of PlanIt were not in line with reality.

It took a while, but that report finally landed on my desk.

It’s the 2020 Generational Real Estate Trends Report: Aging in Place from Mustel Group and Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which uncovers trends related to aging and housing of baby boomers and older adults across the country’s major metropolitan real estate markets.

“This is one of the first studies in Canada to focus on the housing aspirations, expectations and realities of the baby boomer generation, as well as those who are older, with findings based on homeowners already invested in the housing market,” says Josh O’Neill, general manager of Mustel Group. “Results from the survey reflect the latest trends within one of the country’s most influential demographic cohorts.”

The report is based on findings from a survey of 1,764 homeowners aged 54 years or older in Canada’s major markets, including Calgary.

Here’s what the report reveals about the Stampede City.

“Calgary’s baby boomer/ older adult homeowners are likely to have considered their future needs with aging when purchasing their current home, with 49 per cent indicating that these considerations influenced their home purchase.

“Safety was the leading neighbourhood feature prioritized to specifically support their needs in aging, with 46 per cent reporting it as a top priority. Car friendliness emerged as a unique priority for Calgary, with 36 per cent reporting it as a key consideration and 31 per cent indicating that proximity to a grocery store was a key, aging-related factor in their home purchase.”

Having a full bathroom and bedroom were priorities with, respectively, 42 per cent and 37 per cent of respondents. A majority of condominium dwellers, (66 per cent) said having an elevator was a must, while 50 per cent want a communal outdoor space and 35 per cent put an indoor fitness and wellness facility on their priority lists.

A new home with these priorities is on a lot of lists, says the report.

“Almost half, 43 per cent of Calgary’s baby boomer/older adult homeowners expect to sell and move to another primary home during their lifetime. They expect to move within the same city to a different neighbourhood, at a rate of 20 per cent, while nine per cent expect to move within their current neighbourhood and 14 per cent expect to move to a different city entirely.”

A large majority (82 per cent) of those who plan to sell and move from their current home intend to purchase their replacement residence, suggesting that they will remain active and influential real estate consumers in upcoming years.

The leading future home feature sought after to support aging-related needs is single-level living, cited by 60 per cent.

Moving downtown? Not the majority, with 83 per cent strongly agreeing or somewhat agreeing they want to live in their current home for as long as they can.

In terms of neighbourhood, 86 per cent said they strongly or somewhat agreed they want to live in their neighbourhood for as long as they can.

I sure could have used this report that day in Canmore.

But I take solace in that I’ve seen reports that show the majority of young couples prefer to buy a home in new, suburban communities. No doubt, some are city planners.

In those evil, evil suburbs.