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Annapolis, Maryland - June 1, 2007 — Topretirements and the magazine “Where to Retire” both rate Annapolis Maryland as one of the best places to retire - if you can afford to live there. The community has charm, history, a beautiful downtown, the U.S. Naval Academy, and plenty of drop-dead waterfront.

It is a great place to live, but according to the Washington Post, not everybody is happy about its reputation as a great place to retire. The main reason is because of the city’s policy of trying to encourage retirement housing as a way to discourage overcrowding and having to build new schools. If a school district fills up, no more housing can be built there unless it is for seniors - a constituency typically with no school age children. While this saves the city money by not having to build more schools, it has other negative effects. Parents of school age children are concerned that an increasing preponderance of seniors means school budgets might be harder to pass. Builders are upset that they often can only build units for people over 55, when the market might be calling for something else - like affordable housing. For more details here is the link to the Washington Post article:

Follow this link for reviews of over 180 top retirement communities at Topretirements.

The April figures for sales of existing homes are in, and the news isn’t so great for sellers. April sales were down 2.6%, following a March drop of 7.9% from February. According to figures from the National Association of Realtors, April sales declined 10.7% from the year ago period.

While figures on sales of active adult and retirement community homes and condominiums are hard to come by, it stands to reason that the overall market weakness is also having a negative affect on this segment. But for baby boomers considering purchasing a new home, the news is probably positive. Continued pressure on sellers and greater inventories should mean price flexibility and better selection. Is the time to buy nearing?

The inventory of unsold homes is piling up and now stands at 8.4 months worth of supply - the highest level in 15 years. That increased inventory is apparently affecting prices, which declined a slight 0.2% vs. April 2006. Experts interviewed in the Wall Street Journal predicted that the double whammy of increasing inventories and slowing sales will mean even more pressure on prices in the months to come.

As one expert called it in the New York Times, “the market is lousy”. It appears that the nation’s sub-prime credit pricing woes are a new drag on the real estate market.

Sales of new homes increased 16% in April over March while prices dropped. But experts point out that new home sales are just a small part of the overall market, about 15%. Recent earnings reports from the nation’s big builders have been dismal as well.

Sales in the Northeast showed the biggest sales declines (-8.8%) and the south had the smallest (-1.2%). To find a list of cities organization by state, go to the best reviews of retirement communities.

May 19, 2007 — For baby boomers trying to figure out whether this is the time to buy into a retirement community, the recent news is balanced. There is some good news, bad news, and neutral news. On the whole it seems like this is still a buyers’ market, although no one can predict if the bottom has been reached.

On the economic side:

Good news: New unemployment claims are down for the 5th straight week (Labor Department)

Not quite so good: Consumer prices and leading economic indicators from the Conference Board’s April figures are down slightly

Reassuring: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke commented on the sub-prime mortgage problem that he “does not expect significant spillovers (from it) to the rest of the economy”. He was cautioning Congress not to pass legislation toughening lending laws

Disappointing: Housing starts fell to their lowest levels in 17 years, according to the New York Times

Positive: New home construction rose in April

Condo Sales and Prices
A lot of active adults in retirement purchase condos, so they are probably curious what is happening in that sphere. Here are some new figures from the National Association of Realtors:

The national median price of a condo stood at $224,500 in 2007’s first quarter, an increase of 1.0% from 1st Q 2006.

More metros had price declines (31) than increases (27) or unchanged (1)

Highest price increases occurred in the Salt Lake, UT area (up almost 26%)

Lowest median price condos are in Bismarck, SD ($91,600) and most expensive are in San Francisco area ($584,700). Sarasota/Bradenton/Venice condo prices are second highest at $413,900

Existing Home Sales
The NAR reported that 1st Quarter sales of existing homes and condos were off 6.6% from the
2006 first quarter, but up 2.4% from the last quarter of 2006.

See this link for other Topretirement stories on retirement real estate bubble?. For more about baby boomer retirement.

Here is a list of all of the active adult retirement communities reviewed at Topretirements

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.

Follow this link for a list of the Top 10 Mistakes You Can Make Buying into an Active Adult Community

Bert Sperling is the man behind those “Best Places to Live” lists you see in “Money” Magazine. His newest book came out this week, and the results will be viewed with interest by active adults looking for the “best” retirement communities.

Sperling uses sophisticated tools and databases to come up with his lists. Cost of housing is very important, so recent price run-ups in some parts of the country doomed many communities’ chances of a high ranking. Crime rates, health care availability, taxes,weather, and amenities like being a college town also significantly impact the rankings.

His latest book, “Cities Ranked & Rated: More Than 400 Metropolitan Areas Evaluated in the U.S. and Canada”, has lists of best places for a variety of different groups. The 2 lists of interest to Topretirements’ visitors are shown below, as published in the “New York Times” (communities for which Topretirements.com has reviews for are listed in bold - see “Retirement community reviews“):

Best Places for Empty Nesters (in order)

Bellingham, WA

Missoula, MT

Santa Fe, NM

Park City, UT

Hood River, OR

Tucson, AZ

Oxford, MS

Lake Tahoe, NV

Nashua, NH

Berkeley, CA

Best Places for Retirees (in order)

Northhampton, MA

St. George, UT

Charlottesville, VA

Fayetteville, AR

Gainesville, GA

Ashland, OR

Olympia, WA

Asheville, NC

Ithaca NY

Texas Hill Country

Topretirements is gearing up to publish an expanded article for our “Tips and Picks” section on how to persuade aging parents that it is time to move to some type of retirement home. We are very interested in hearing “war stories” from our readers’ experiences in trying to persuade their relatives to move from their private homes to a facility where they can get the care they need (independent living, assisted living, retirement home, continuing care retirement community, or nursing home). Please send your comments to editor@topretirements.com; we will try to share as many as we can.

Along with many people we know, we have struggled unsuccessfully with this issue. It is extremely difficult to persuade the elderly that they need more care. The reasons why relatives and friends don’t want to move out of their homes are certainly understandable - loss of independence and privacy being 2 really good ones. Whatever the reason, it seems like the majority of older people refuse to move until it is too late. The most serious ramification of waiting too long is that a serious health event occurs. That usually means disqualification for admittance to the most attractive facilities, or admittance only at a much higher cost. There are many other negatives associated with waiting too long, which we will explore in the Tips and Picks article. Please send us your experiences, and keep checking on this site for the new article.

Update May 2007: Use this link to find the completed article on Helping Elders Move, and this one to discuss your own war stories on helping to manage elder moves