As the housing market recovers, sellers are noting a significant increase in sales to homeowners aged 55 and up. Lennar Corporation, Pulte Homes and Toll Brothers, three of the nation's largest home building companies, are reporting significantly improved sales numbers among this age group. In many cases, it is newly built residences designed specifically for retirees that they are buying.
According to analysts, improvement in this sector is a direct result of rising housing prices, which are allowing older buyers to sell their current dwellings and use the profits to move into "active-adult" homes. A spokesman for Pulte Homes told Investor's Business Daily that demand for active-adult houses was up 11 percent in the second quarter of 2014 over the previous year.
Stephen Melman, director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builders, says: "The best thing that could happen for new construction is that the existing-home market improves. Every prospective buyer, like the age 55-plus buyer, has to sell their existing home before they buy a new one."
The president of Toll Brothers noted that, in general, people who move into active-adult communities are financially successful and have high credit scores. But many put their moving plans on hold during the height of the mortgage crisis, when they would not have gotten an ideal return on their homes.
Now the market is clearly on the upswing, with home sales and mortgage numbers rising across all age groups. Mortgage loan software can guide lenders to ensure that they make wise investments and take full advantage of the improving economy. With installment loan software, all a borrower's relevant credit and payment data can be processed and analyzed to establish ideal amortization schedules for a smoother transaction.