First, if you are looking to find a powerful group of buyers in the market, the gay and lesbian market is growing quickly. According to Trend Watching, a newsletter that focuses on the newest marketing trends, the gay and lesbian purchasing power should exceed 835 billion dollars in 2011. Now that is not all housing, but a part of it will be an it is a demographic that should not be ignored.
Trend Watching had an interesting segment of the marketplace that did catch my eye as working a micro niche of the market. Retirement communities for the gay and lesbian community. The first real “out” gays were coming of age in the sixties. These folks are now hitting the retirement years and are looking to retire as they lived. Trendwatching found 5 retirement communities that focus on the gays. and lesbians.
Many gays and lesbians reject the traditional retirement community lifestyle. After years of living freely, they don’t want to move back into the closet. So make way for the following alternatives:
RainbowVision has developed gay and lesbian retirement communities in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Palm Springs, California.
Currently under development, Paradise One Condominiums is part retirement community and part upscale condominium, “a progressive community that is as Straight-Friendly as it is Gay Friendly.”
Stonewall Communities’ vision is to develop and offer a range of options for older GLBT people. Stonewall Audubon Circle, currently under development, will be open to anyone regardless of race, colour, national origin, religion, familial status, age, handicap, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
The Resort on Carefree Boulevard bills itself as Southwest Florida’s premier lesbian destination, with a mixture of full-time and holiday residents ranging in age from 40 to 85 years, both working and retired.
Despite its name, Finnish Mummolaakso (‘Grandma Valley’) is a solidarity group open to women of all ages, with most members aged between 30 and 60. The organisation aims to provide healthcare and terminal care for lesbians and bisexual women, with the ultimate aim of providing retirement housing services, too.
No related posts.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Gay and lesbian buyers are a very attractive target for the retirement market, for the reasons you specify. One thing is certain about the millions of baby boomers coming into this market is that they won't be retiring like their parents did, there will be all kinds of interesting niches like this.
One interesting private community for gays we've written about is in Santa Rosa, Fountaingrove Lodge – http://www.topretirements.com/reviews/California/… – But beyond private communities, there are several cities and towns across the country that have gained a reputation for being gay and lesbian friendly – Rehobeth Beach (DE), Provincetown (MA), and Northampton (MA) are 3 in particular.
I am the owner of a Seattle Real Estate Agency and I have created and entire website to help serve the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. My goal when developing this site was to offer gay families the opportunity to have every member of the family participate in looking for a new home.
Often gay families are forced to look at homes separately due to fear of persecution or adverse reactions from intolerable people. Gay parents sometimes feel the need to protect their children and searching for homes without their partner is sometimes the best scenario they can come up with. Our goal is to normalize the process for gay families so that they can enjoy the freedom every family in America should.
You can see the site at http://www.yourseattlegayrealtor.com
The Nation's Largest service of this kind is http://www.GayRealEstate.com
It is gay owned and operated, serving the LGBT Community and some of the straight community preferring to work with a Gay or Lesbian Realtor.
Really simple to use… choose the city and state you are selling or considering buying in and you get a free list of Gay, Lesbina and Gay Friendly Realtors – you can read their Bio's and choose the agent you'd like to work with.
Great Service!
If you visit http://www.gaylesbianretirementcommunity.com you will be forwarded to the website of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals http://www.naglrep.com
Members of NAGLREP understand gay and lesbian real estate market and are advocates of your goals.
They can buy home in http://www.99gilberthomes.com/ there's a lot of beautiful houses there…
In England they refer to it as the power of the pink pound. It's great that there are retirement facilities for gay and lesbian people. I imagine it would be a fun place to live