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Home sweet home
Baby
Boomers with money look for the best for their nests
by
Lois Carter Fay
In
the midst of the Baby Boom back in the 1950s, Americans
had modest expectations for their housing. More than
one third of U.S. houses lacked indoor plumbing. Many
parents were happy just to have a separate room for
their children and maybe a yard to put them in.
What a difference 50 years make. Those children from
the "Leave it to Beaver" years are the fastest-growing
segment of the home-buying public. As they approach
their peak earning years, Baby Boomers are both numerous
and affluent. And they have very different ideas of
how they want to live.
Boomers
want it all. They demand high-speed connections and
structured wiring so they can work efficiently at home,
day or night. They want home security, room to exercise
and lots of storage space. They want spacious bathrooms
loaded not only with the latest in plumbing accoutrements
but wired for telephones. Boomers want their dishwashers
quiet and their entertainment centers equipped with
Surround Sound with speakers in every room.
A
home today is no longer just a person's castle, a refuge
from the workaday world. A house is the ultimate status
symbol, a fashion statement and the expression of personal
identity. "You're purchasing a lifestyle,"
says Jim Napier, president of Napier Realtors ERA and
president of the Richmond Association of Realtors. "You
might want an urban environment for culture or nightlife,
or you might want acreage in a rural setting. But you're
buying a lifestyle."
Whether
in the city, on the water or out in the country, our
homes more and more are becoming the center of our lives.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are in no small measure
responsible for the return to home and hearth, according
to Marina Ringstrom, director of marketing for Real
Estate III/Glenmore, a gated community in Keswick, Va.,
with its own equestrian center. "People are looking
to incorporate into their lifestyle a very close-to-home
attitude where the comforts of home are increasingly
important."
The
trend is to meld business and home environments. And
in high-end real estate, that often means a planned
community with resort amenities. "Many want it
all," says Connie Pollard, vice president of marketing
for Hampton Roads-based developer East West Partners,
"a state of the art home with fantastic views,
an easy commute in a lifestyle community for the whole
family to enjoy." The Riverfront, East West's community
on the James and Nansemond rivers, is just such a place.
With an 18-hole championship golf course, year-round
tennis, a 43-acre lake encircled by a walking/jogging
path with an adjoining park and six acres of riverfront
park with a pier and gazebo, every day can be a vacation.
The commute? Fifteen minutes to downtown Norfolk, 10
minutes to the Peninsula.
In
expensive real estate, the phrase 'comforts of home'
used to imply Corian counters or luxurious master suites.
Now it carries nesting connotations, says Ringstrom.
"People are realizing how important it is to be
with family." And that means more than just children.
Boomers, the Sandwich Generation, are taking in their
parents in record numbers. Mother-in-law suites are
coming back in high style, she says. She knows of bright-and-airy
basement suites that open into walkout terraces.
Sleek,
chic kitchens are high on the high-end wish list, says
Jackie Atiyeh of Long and Foster. "People are looking
for really neat kitchens to use as family living space."
In fact, in terms of creature comforts, the kitchen
has replaced the bathroom. "It used to be big bathrooms,"
says Atiyeh. (Show of hands: Haven't you redone at least
one bathroom?) Now granite countertops and stainless
steel appliances are the sought-after look.
At
the center of activity in the house, kitchens are becoming
roomier. "A newly done high-end kitchen would have
big open areas for big screen TVs or pool tables,"
Atiyeh says. If the kitchen itself isn't large, it should
spill into a great room so the family can be together
without getting too up close and personal. "It's
a welcoming room," says Ringstrom: "one big
space where families can spend time together."
Most
executive homebuyers place a premium on their time and
convenience, and few have the appetite for extensive
renovations. The good news is that you're more likely
to recoup your investment if you undertake the remodeling
yourself, Atiyeh says. If you're planning to sell in
the next few years, go ahead, create the room you want.
You can enjoy it before you surrender it, and still
get top dollar when you sell. "People appreciate
having it all done before they get there.
They're willing to pay a premium for work that's already
been done."
Nowhere does remodeling pay off more than in the kitchen,
particularly if the renovation incorporates the latest
in 21st-century gadgets. "People in these homes
entertain, and they want a gourmet kitchen to make gourmet
meals, so they customize," says Lummie Jones, vice-president
of new homes sales for Napier Realtors ERA. Cook-tops
are stretching to six burners to accommodate large parties.
Warming drawers are a hot feature. And everyone wants
plenty of workspace.
"It's
becoming standard to build 34- to 36-inch countertops.
And we're seeing furniture-looking cabinets, like cherry
or other wood finishes, and less white cabinetry,"
says Rich Napier, president of Napier Signature Homes
and president of the Homebuilders Association of Richmond.
Appliances are changing as well. "People want professional
grade cook tops like Viking and Thermador, Décor,
and you're seeing multiple cooking stations, too."
Butler's
pantries are regaining popularity, says Napier. "Some
people put a refrigerator, a sink or a dishwasher in
there, so it winds up like a small, second kitchen that
acts as an overflow. You can take all the dishes in
there and close the door and still entertain in the
kitchen."
New homes provide opportunities to customize that are
difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate into an
existing house. Try ceilings, for instance. "Even
if the square footage isn't that big, a nine- or ten-foot
ceiling makes it seem bigger," says Jones. A spec
house in Dalmore in Powhatan County, for instance, has
10-foot ceilings on the first floor and nine-foot ceilings
on the second floor. A beautiful center stairway, a
formal library and dining room with arched doorways
and pocket doors are some features that justify the
$985,000 price tag.
Ceiling
heights vary widely. "You can get a lot of different
ceiling treatments," says Jones. Barrel vaulted,
trey ceilings and cathedral ceilings are just a few.
"Some houses have different treatments in different
rooms. They each have a different feel." Another
increasingly popular feature is an outdoor fireplace,
according to Napier, who has one. "You can sit
outside by the fire and look at the stars."
For
many, the solution to a busy life is a big house where
you can do everything - from running your business to
running on your treadmill - with a postage stamp-size
lot for low maintenance. But in Middleburg and Charlottesville,
areas where horses graze on rolling meadows, people
want space and the promise of keeping it. "I chase
developers out of my office," says Philip Thomas
of Thomas and Talbot in Middleburg. "The value
is in protecting the land. If you bring in more people,
you have more cars, more furnaces burning, more pollution.
And people don't want to spend a lot of money on acreage
and wake up to hear bulldozers."
The
Environmental Trust protects the area from being diced
into small parcels through the use of easements, a measure
that gets the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. "If you put three houses per acre versus
one house per 100 acres, it's a lot more environmentally
sound," says Thomas. And buyers pay a premium for
that protection. One recent sale brought $7.5 million
for a totally redone, 10,000-square-foot house on 130
acres. It was on the market for four days, according
to a Middleburg agent.
Buyers
look into the Charlottesville area for the same reasons,
according to Joe Samuels of Joseph T. Samuels, Inc.
"Our buyers come from all over the world seeking
this wonderful small-town environment that enjoys the
sporting, social, educational and cultural elements
associated with the University of Virginia. We have
a very keen market for our farms and estates, complemented
by a strong commitment to the preservation of open space."
And preservation has its financial benefits, too. "Our
company has taken a very active role in raising the
awareness of the importance of that preservation while
assisting buyers with an understanding of the advantageous
tax consequences."
Down
towards Gloucester, Urbanna and Deltaville, it's all
about the water, where about half the homes are second
homes, and waterfront properties run from $200,000 to
the millions. "It's a rarity to sell a house of
any financial consequence that isn't on the water,"
says IsaBell Horsley of IsaBell K. Horsley Real Estate.
The deeper the water, the deeper the pockets, she notes.
Because waterfront land doesn't come open every day,
a million dollars doesn't necessarily buy what it does
inland. It's not out of the question to pay $300,000
for a cottage with less than 1,000 square feet. Recently,
a 1790 house on nine acres sold for $450,000 in its
first week on the market. "No one leaves here,"
says Horsley. "If you want to buy, someone has
to be dead, dying or divorcing."
Whereas
Virginians seem to appreciate the sand in their shoes,
many of the home buyers come from out of state. Horsley
has one client who commutes every weekend from New York.
After buying a 1950s house in 1997 for $600,000, Horsley
says, the owners made some changes - and we're not just
talking about modernizing the kitchen. They took out
the old swimming pool and put in a new one. They had
a bigger boat than the previous owners, so they had
to have a bigger dock. Then the owner bought back 35
acres of land that had been cut from the property previously.
Says Horsley: "Everyone gets just what they want."
Return to Virginia Business - June 2002
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