Boomer Development aims to meet the housing needs of aging baby boomers, something we think is not being well addressed in the East Texas housing industry. Like selling anything, the point with selling housing designs is to come up with something people want to buy.
Matt Thornhill, a co-founder of an organization called the Boomer Project, says that the generational values specific to boomers are:
- Entitlement
- Control
- Personal gratification
- Work Ethic
- Optimism
Thornhill blames it on the momentous events that shaped the live of this particular generation. Boomers have a tendency to be spoiled to getting what they want. That sense of entitlement means they are less likely to accept what is offered to them and far more likely to demand that they get just what they want. The explosion in technology and a new business philosophy in America, driven by the likes of Tom Peters and Peter Drucker that emphasizes responsiveness to customer demands, has only reinforced the conviction of boomers that they ought to get what they want with their money.
Boomers learned young, during the upheavals of the 60s and 70s that they could force change if they were stubborn enough to stick by their principles. More than any previous generation, the children of the boomer era have proven less inclined to blindly follow authority or to allow others to control them arbitrarily.
Boomers experimented widely, trying out drugs, fads and philosophies seeking to gratify their personal needs and desires. Whether entirely successful or not, they learned the habit of self-gratification and again, with American business rushing to sell things that gratified the desires of the huge consumer market represented by the boomers, proceeded to spoil us to satisfying our slightest impulses. If we wanted a Coke, we got 6 kinds and 20 brands of cola. We took up coffee and Starbucks offered us a bewildering array of flavors and versions of coffee (at $4 a pop).
The generation that gave us hippies isn't really thought of as particularly hard-working, but if you look closely, you'll find that the boomers carried their parents work ethic to new heights in the 80s and 90s. We boomers pioneered the 80 hour work week, the working lunch and the laptop computer. We carried fat briefcases every where and workaholics were almost more numerous than alcoholics for the first time in history.
Finally, this generation is one of the first to grow up from infancy with the idea firmly implanted that things would always get better. For centuries the world marched along unchanged. Very little improvement was seen in the lot of the ordinary man. Our parents pulled cotton as kids and worked in the fields. They remember a time when a car was a luxury and if you wanted to know something, you hiked to the library. The dizzying rise of technology has convinced our generation that things are always going to get better, faster, smarter and more affordable as time goes on. It's little wonder that we're optimistic.
That accounts for the optimism with which we look ahead. We expect good things for ourselves and we're likely to get it. Most people who make the age of 65 will likely live into their 90s. Advances in medicine will certainly improve the quality of our life as we age. Most of us plan to continue doing some sort of productive work after we retire. At the very least we plan to play hard and live well.
As a result, this generation no longer accepts a long stay in the old folks home as an inevitability. We plan on enjoying our old age. Thornhill* predicts the following as boomer's age.
- Boomers will move in and out of retirement. They’ll work in encore jobs, volunteer, and start their own businesses.
- Boomers will play a larger role in their healthcare due to the availability of information. They’ll want to be cared for in their homes. Chronic conditions will increase, as will the ways to treat them.
- Boomers will live in cities and create new living arrangements such as naturally occurring retirement communities, co-housing, and intergenerational living. Pods, one bedroom temporary structures wired to the main house, will become popular.
- Being old will be cool.
- Intergenerational living opportunities will be created.
While Boomers could well be considered self-centered, it's not a self-absorbed sort of focus on self. It's more of a “What's in it for me?” approach. Boomers actually do volunteer work more than the previous generations did, mainly because it makes them feel good about themselves rather than from a sense of duty. The implications for housing are obvious.
- Boomers won't just accept anything that's offered. They will want features they want and if they don't get it, they'll go elsewhere. And someone else will get their business.
- Boomers will increasingly control the nation's money supply and make decisions as to how it gets spent. And marketers will fall all over themselves trying to figure out how to get them to part with their money. This means selling housing to aging Boomers is going to be all about giving them what they wants.
- Boomers will want their houses to be as flexible as their lifestyles. They will not be satisfied being limited by their living space.
- Boomers will keep up with the latest gadgets and trends better than their parents did. Builders will have to wire, not only houses, but whole communities for the Internet, install wireless systems, satellite, cable, and wireless systems. We Boomers are going to hang on stubbornly to our cool for as long as possible.
- Boomers don't like to be alone. We'll bring our kids in with us to help and bribe them to stick around. We'll take in stray grandchildren, dogs and friends. Our homes will have to accommodate that need for flexibility of occupancy.,
Architects and builders will need to listen more closely to their potential clients if we intend to sell house plans and if developers are going to sell new communities to the Boomer generation.
References:
“How Boomers Will Transform Growing Older in America – Part 2” by Rita R. Robinson