BUILDERS BET BABY BOOMERS WILL WANT TO LIVE GREEN 

TREND: New homes for retirees are eco-friendly and energy efficient.

 Shea Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, believes baby boomers are looking for communities that make an environmental difference. 

This month, Shea announced the opening of Victoria Gardens, an “active lifestyle,” or retirement, development in Florida sandwiched between Orlando and Daytona Beach.  The homes were advertised as having a carbon footprint that is 20 percent to 30 percent less than that of a “typical household.” 

Billed, as eco-friendly and energy-wise, the homes feature solar attic fans, green-fiber recycled insulation, motion-sensor-triggered lighting, energy-efficient windows and appliances, and garages outfitted with electric-vehicle charging stations,.  Shea says it has focused on small, incremental green features that will collectively add up to energy savings. 

Housing developments that target baby boomers may be the next big push for the green-housing market, and statistics indicate this could be a good marriage.  “There is no doubt that green trend is going to accelerate more and more,”  said Rick Andreen, president of Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities division. 

Victoria Gardens marks Shea’s debut in the Florida retirement market, though the company is building similar homes in Northern and Southern California, Arizona, and Washington.  The energy-efficient features are considered standard in these homes. Other retirement communities from Texas to Maine are taking similar steps and adding green features to existing homes. 

An army retirement community in San Antonio recently announced plans to install solar hot-water systems in the community’s 180 homes.  Sea Coast Management Co., which manages retirement communities in Maine, is offering existing residents incentives to install solar hot-water heaters and offering a Toyota Prius and/or a free solar hot-water system to customers buying a home. 

Baby boomers grew up alongside the environmental movement of the 1960’s and 70’s.  “This is the birth cohort that was at the environmental movement’s summer of love,” said Matthew Kahn, a professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment. 

In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were approximately 78.2 million baby boomers in the U.S.  A December 2007 survey by AARP found that roughly half of all boomers see themselves as environmental stewards, or “green boomers.” 

Besides being a large swath of the population, boomers are overwhelmingly homeowners.  Boomers are also far more affluent than earlier generations of retirees, making it more likely that they will consider paying a premium for environmentally friendly housing features.  

Builders have been studying and surveying boomers, and , while this generation is far from homogenous, the industry sees some evidence that today’s new wave of environmental concerns and rising energy costs will factor into boomers’ housing decisions.