Retiree Attraction as an Economic Development Strategy
The Creation of Retirement One half of all people who ever lived to the age of 65 are alive today! In 1875 when Otto von Bismarck set the age of 65 as the age to receive a pension, the average life expectancy was in the mid-thirties. What happened in between 1875 and today is the longevity revolution which really began with post-World War II antibiotics and modern epidemiology.
Dynamic and Evolving Market There are currently 36 million retirees in the U.S. On January 1, 2008 the first ‘baby boomer’ turned age 62. (Boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1965) Over the next two decades 77 million ‘baby boomers’ will reach retirement age. With the increase in life-expectancy the boomers will have to decide what to do and where to spend about 20 to 25 years of life.
| Surge in Demand Above all else what one must expect is that there will be a significant increase in the demand for services to retirees.Boomers will change both the scope of the market and scale of the market for all retiree services. |
Retirees: an Engine of Development? A typical description of the retiree is that they are tourist who don’t go home. Of course it is generally accepted attracting tourists is a legitimate path to development. But to say a retiree is just a tourist who does not go home over simplifies the impact of retirees. Like tourists retirees do bring a lot of discretionary spending with them when they move.
 More Than Discretionary Spending Whether they rent or buy, retirees induce home building. New residential construction has one of the highest multipliers for any sector since new home building also means new home furnishing, new appliances, etc. Various estimates place the purchase price of the median value retiree home at between $150,000 to $200,000. A small retiree development of 250 homes will add about $50.0 million to a community’s tax base ...
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