U.S. retirement patterns shifting

Flickr photo by eflon.

When I was writing a column about the growing popularity of mountain locations for second homes, in the course of my research I called Teri Lester, a Realtor at Gateway Land and Development in Vail, to find out what was going on in that famed Colorado ski area.

We chatted for a long time about what was going on in Vail, and one of the things on her mind was the amount of retirees that were moving to her area.

I was a little surprised because my parents moved to Florida in the 1960s and stayed there through the retirement years, while I have lived in Arizona for decades, and both hot-weather states have been known as Meccas for retirees. Somehow this translated in my mind to the conclusion that people retire to warm-weather locations partly because they are tired of the cold and spend their winters digging out of snow.

Whew, was I out of touch!

While the escape-the-winter blues is definitely a key rationale for some retirees to move, it certainly isn't a motivation for others. Where people retire and why that particular location was chosen is much more random and will get even more so in the future as the Baby Boom generation slouches toward its retirement years.

"One of the things we are going to see with the Baby Boom generation, partly because it's such a very large pool of people, who are very diverse and a bit more independent thinking, will be more people venturing into new places to retire," notes Ron Manheimer, who until recently was the director of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Manheimer retired from his job after 21 years but he's not heading to some condominium in Florida to play golf. He's formed a new consulting firm called The Manheimer Group.

The Sunbelt has traditionally been the most attractive group of states for retirement, Manheimer explains, "but there is a big range within that region, and where people go depends on how much warm weather they want and how often they want it. We find there is a whole segment of people who like the change of seasons -- they don't want to live in a place that is always hot."

When I was talking with Lester, I asked, "When did Vail become a retirement location?"

It was a slow build but it's been going on for a while, she told me, "and every year it gets bigger."

What happens in a place like Vail is that families come to ski the area when the parents are in their 40s or 50s and they like it so much they decide to come back in retirement. ...CONTINUED

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