Samantha Clark: clark's enews-- Trends

SAMANTHA CLARK

Associate Broker, Commercial Real Estate

Trends

Albuquerque #1

Notes the NM Business Weekly, Albuquerque has moved up to the No. 1 spot on MovieMaker Magazine’s list of the best places to live and shoot films, topping Los Angeles, which took the No. 2 spot.

The publication is a quarterly chronicle of the independent motion picture business. The article praises the city’s vibrant nightlife, 300-plus days of sunshine and diverse terrain. It notes that the Duke City is “fast becoming a movie mecca” in its Winter 2010 issue, adding that the city lured 24 film and television productions in fiscal year 2009. They took advantage of the city’s ability to “double for nearly every type of backdrop, as well as its proximity to Los Angeles and experienced crew base of 3,000 and growing,” according to the article.

Try It Before You Buy It

Reports the NY Times, with those over 55 now almost a quarter of the population, more age-restricted communities have sprung up to meet their needs. They range from sprawling active-adult communities with the amenities and carnival atmosphere of cruise ships to small, intimate communities where karaoke night would be anathema. The housing ranges from small apartments to large private homes with styles that span Southwest adobe to Swiss chalet.

In a bid to attract residents in a tight economy, more retirement communities are offering overnight stays similar to what colleges offer prospective students.

But instead of being matched with an upperclassman and staying in a dorm, retirees are squired around by community residents and stay in a model home or apartment. They eat in the dining room, use the fitness equipment, attend social gatherings, go to any scheduled classes and generally experience life there.

“It’s pretty much the same as a college campus visit, just without the keg parties,” said Maggie Stark, marketing director at the Kendal Retirement Community in Oberlin, Ohio, which has at least four potential residents a month taking advantage of its Try-It program — eight a month in peak times during the spring and fall.

While the idea of offering no-obligation overnight stays dates back to the development of the Sun City, Ariz., retirement community in the 1960s, it is only recently that such extended trial visits have been widely offered and actively promoted. The poor economy has led to more-aggressive marketing, and the large and growing population of older adults has created more interest. “We’re talking 78 million Americans,” said Elinor Ginzler, the senior vice president for livable communities at the AARP. “They have to live somewhere.”