Category Archives: Homes

Senior Housing: Baby Boomers Choosing To Stay In Own Homes Threatens New Facilities

November 13, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

The rise of technologies that help the elderly stay in their homes threatens to upend one of commercial real estate’s biggest bets: Aging baby boomers will leave their residences in droves for senior housing.

Developers and senior-housing companies have spent billions of dollars over the past five years to build facilities that provide housing, food, medical care and assistance for the elderly.

While these properties have been filling up with people born during the Depression or World War II era, real-estate investors are eagerly eyeing the massive baby-boomer generation: 72 million people born between 1946 and 1964, or about one in five Americans. Their needs would require hundreds of thousands of new units, if previous demand patterns persist.

But this wager on elderly care is falling short of expectations, and there are concerns that it could become one of the biggest real-estate miscalculations in recent memory, some analysts suggest.

Home Design, Homes, Reviews

Future Of Housing: The “Escher” From New Frontier Tiny Homes

November 12, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Chef’s Kitchen

The Escher kitchen, built for an actual chef, merges functionality and luxury. With a casual open floor plan, you’ll find guests tend to congregate near and compliment this room.

King Size Master Bedroom

Sleeping in the cantilevered loft feels like floating in mid-air. The King bed downstairs comes with a hydraulic lift revealing cleverly designed storage space. The loft can be upgraded with skylights.

Custom tile shower and Walk-In Closet

First class elbow room comes standard in this 4’x4’ tile shower trimmed in glass. The adjacent walk-in closet provides a wardrobe area for two.

Homes, News

Housing Market: Baby Boomers Staying In Homes Longer, Reducing Supply

November 3, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Economists say aging baby boomers are the biggest culprits because many are staying healthier later in life and choosing not to downsize. Some look around at the lack of smaller, less expensive homes and are loath to get into bidding wars with their children’s generation to get one.

Homeowners there are staying more than three years longer than they did in 2010. The inventory of homes for sale in Seattle has declined more than 50% over the last nine years, while home prices have risen more than 80%, according to Redfin.

Americans are staying in their homes much longer than before, creating a logjam of housing inventory off the market that helps explain why home sales have been sputtering.

Homeowners nationwide are remaining in their homes typically 13 years, five years longer than they did in 2010, according to a new analysis by real-estate brokerage Redfin. When owners don’t trade up to a larger home for a growing family or downsize when children leave, it plugs up the market for buyers coming behind them.

Home Design, Homes, Technology

Future Of Housing: “GO Homes” Are Prefabricated, “Highly Insulated, Air-Sealed” & 90% Efficient

November 2, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Froom a Dwell.com online article:

To meet Passive House standards, the Cousins River Residence features an airtight building envelope, triple-glazed windows with a u-value of 0.16, a heat recovery ventilation system with 90% efficiency, and a 4.6 kW south-facing photovoltaic array on the garage roof that makes the house nearly net-zero energy.

With their three children grown up and out of the house, Nico and Ellen Walsh were ready to downsize from their old Victorian home to a smaller abode better aligned with their environmentally friendly principles.

The heart of every GO Home is a highly insulated, air-sealed building shell designed to use 90 percent less energy than a conventional new house, even in chilly northern New England. On sites with a favorable southern exposure, adding a modest array of photovoltaic panels yields a zero-energy home.

When the couple spotted Belfast-based design-build firm GO Logic’s LEED Platinum GO Home on the cover of Maine Home and Design Magazine, they instantly fell in love with the modern high-performance design and the possibilities of a nearly net-zero energy house.

Homes, Retirement, Reviews

Elderly Housing Trends: “Almshouse” Movement In UK Urges “Sheltered, Independent Housing”

October 27, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a The Guardian online article:

A new almshouse movement, advocated by some experts, builds on a way of living dating back to the 10th century. Almshouses provide sheltered but independent housing, often around a central courtyard, at affordable rents. Many offer social activities, on-site maintenance and – crucially – links with external groups.

The housing industry should “focus on building communities made up of homes for rent that will meet the needs of all demographics and not just the 25- to 35-year-olds whose faces often adorn modern development hoardings.”

(Ken) Worpole has been involved with the development of a new almshouse in Bermondsey, south London, for United St Saviour’s, a 500-year-old charity. Construction is due to begin next spring and completed by the autumn of 2021.

Read more from Ken Worpole: https://www.eur.nl/sites/corporate/files/2018-06/KW.Rotterdam.2017.pdf

The project, says Worpole, “seeks to actively retain longstanding entanglement of residents with the life of the neighbourhood, old friendships, local parks, libraries, shops and social activities. It is open to the world and still part of everyday life.”

The site of the new homes is on a busy high street, and designed to be accessible to the general public. A glass-fronted “community lounge” will be available to local groups.

Home Design, Homes, Technology

Homebuilder KB Homes Discusses Smart Homes Of Tomorrow (Video)

Video October 22, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a MarketRealist.com online article:

The home’s adaptation is not only about automatically adjusting lights to match the circadian rhythms of the occupants or unlocking a door based on facial recognition. It’s also adapting over time to occupants’ needs. For instance, Bridleman describes walls that move to create new spaces or beds that fold into the wall creating an office space—all based on voice commands.

KB Home’s (KBH) SVP Dan Bridleman discusses the smart home of tomorrow and the work the company is doing to make the home the center of a smart ecosystem. Instead of traditional bespoke construction techniques, modularity and the off-site construction of building blocks or subsystems are the trends for new construction seen in the KB Home ProjeKt.

Homes, Reviews

Boomers Homes: Costly Modifications Needed To Stay In Your Existing Home

October 21, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Kaiser Health News online article:

Leaving nothing to chance, the Cavners are making a number of modifications they might never need. For instance, neither uses a wheelchair, but contractors are making all doorways 3 feet wide for accessibility throughout — just in case. The master bath roll-in shower, flat and rimless, will provide room to maneuver and the master bath vanity is also at wheelchair-accessible height. Kitchen drawers, rather than cabinets, will allow easy access in a wheelchair. The Cavners are closely watching details of the renovation, but it wasn’t a hard decision.

AUSTIN, Texas — Chris and Dennis Cavner, in their early 70s, are preparing to move less than two blocks away into a 2,720-square-foot, ranch-style house they bought this year. But first a renovation is underway, taking the 45-year-old property all the way back to its studs. When the work is completed, these baby boomers are confident the move will land them in their forever home.

“We wanted to find a house that we could live in literally for the rest of our lives,” he said. “We were looking specifically for a one-story house — and one that had a flat lot, to age in place.”

Homes, Old Age, Studies

Harvard’s “Housing America’s Older Adults 2019” Study Highlights Increasing Housing Cost Burdens For The 65+

October 17, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report:

As both the number and share of older households in the United States increase to unprecedented levels, inequalities are becoming more evident. Within the 65-and-over age group, most recent income gains have gone to the highest earners, and the number of households with housing cost burdens has reached an all-time high. Ensuring that middle- and lower-income households in this age range have the means to live affordably and safely in their current homes or move to other suitable housing will be a growing challenge.

Meanwhile, many households in the 50–64 year-old age group have not recovered from the Great Recession, leaving them with lower incomes and homeownership rates than their predecessors at similar ages. For the nearly 10 million households in this age group that are cost burdened, ensuring financial and housing security in retirement will be a struggle.

https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Housing_Americas_Older_Adults_2019.pdf

Home Design, Homes, Reviews

Future Of Housing: Couple Builds “Absolutely Beautiful, Modern” Tiny House For $25,000 Budget

October 13, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Amazingly, this high-end home was constructed for an unbelievable budget of only US$25,000, a testament to Saul’s perseverance with the DIY build and the couple’s clever sourcing of materials. That means this entire home was built for around the same amount of money that the couple would normally spend on one years rent living in San Diego.

This couple have built an absolutely beautiful, modern tiny house, and best of all, they have pulled off the entire build for a budget equivalent to just a years worth of rent in San Diego. In this weeks episode, we explore this stunning tiny house and meet its builders.

Trysh and Saul are both traveling therapists and are no strangers to life on the road. Their carriers mean that they often find themselves needing to settle into new cities and they wanted to construct a home which could better reflect their semi-nomadic lifestyle, giving themselves a place to call home wherever they go. A tiny house on wheels was the perfect solution.

Home Design, Homes, Reviews

Top Tiny Homes: Little Byron Unveils “Ingenious Living And Sleeping Area” With Open Air Bar

October 8, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From an Inhabit.com online article:

The stunning time home on wheels was built for one of Little Bryon’s clients who was looking to have a guest home on their property for visitors, but ultimately had plans to move into the beautiful space down the road when her children left the nest.

Byron Bay-based tiny home builders, Little Byron, have unveiled a gorgeous tiny home design that not only has an ingenious living and sleeping area, but also includes an open air bar area. The Banjo tiny home is just 23 feet long and 8 feet wide, but its breathtaking, space-efficient design makes it seems so much bigger.

The tiny home is a beautiful design that pays homage to typical tiny home practicality, namely natural light. The home is built with an abundance of windows that really open up the space, creating a vibrant, healthy interior space. Not only are there large operable windows in just about every corner of the home, including the bedrooms and bathroom, but there is a massive window in the middle of the living space that opens outward.