Empty Nesters Moving

Into Bigger Nests

 (AP) — A booming economy and a strong real estate market is increasingly prompting some retirees to take a new approach to retirement.

Call it upsizing.

Many empty nesters now have more money to spend on retirement housing. Industry analysts estimate that at least 10 percent of empty-nesters are actually upgrading their housing as they move into their retirement years, a number they said has been growing since the mid-1990s.

The number of luxury buyers is expected to get larger as America’s 76 million Baby Boomers face empty houses and pending retirement.

With their two children grown, Barry and Ellyn Broden moved this summer from a four-bedroom, 2,700-square-foot home in Avon to a $560,000 home in Muirfield Village in Avon. Their new single-family home is 500 square feet larger and $220,000 more expensive than their previous home.

“We upsized,” said Barry Broden, 57, a CPA and professor of accounting and taxation at the University of Hartford. “This is the time in your life when you want all the luxuries.”

Much of the increased spending shift is attributed to a change in attitude. Industry observers say today’s empty-nesters don’t view retirement the same way as previous generations.

Born after the Depression, they are eschewing the idea that retirement means years of penny-pinching while living in a small home. They are more willing to spend what they have earned or take out mortgages and run up credit card bills to get it.

The result in the real estate market both in Connecticut and nationwide is a growing demand for upscale housing.

Local developers have jumped in on the trend, constructing luxury, single-family developments targeted toward “active adults” age 55 and older in towns like Farmington, Avon, West Hartford, Glastonbury, and Cromwell, with prices often exceeding $400,000. The multi-bedroom homes come with amenities like marble floors, three-car garages, home theaters, and customized kitchens.

But this trend is causing concern among some housing experts who fear the shift toward the construction of luxury housing will result in a shortage of less expensive homes for low- and middle-income retirees.

“The economy is doing so well that it is hard to entice people to build affordable housing,” said Leon Harper, a senior housing specialist with the AARP.

Mr Harper said the trend toward upsizing began about five years ago and is being fueled by a generation of empty-nesters who are better educated, earn higher salaries, and have more discretionary funds than their parents and grandparents.

Sharon Craig, a real estate agent with Prudential Connecticut Realty in Simsbury, said the increase in luxury buyers is opening up a category of housing for first- and second-time buyers who cannot afford new construction.

“Younger families who have the ability to move up but can’t afford new construction are buying these homes, and they do have money for renovations,” she said.

Ron Van Winkle, a West Hartford economist, agreed. Both sets of buyers are dumping more money into Connecticut’s economy, he said.

“They are buying new carpet and new appliances and spending a lot of money decorating these homes,” he said. “That has a huge impact on the economy, much more so than households on the lower end of the market.”