I recently listed an updated three bedroom home on a nice tree-lined street located near West Englewood Ave. In past years I would have typically been showing this home all day long to young families looking to gain a foothold in the community where they had hopes of living and raising their children for decades to come. At the open house I conducted this past Sunday, no fewer than two dozen potential buyers came through. While there were many of the predictable “younger buyers” in attendance, a much older demographic stopped in as well. The home had a certain appeal to this crowd as it was perfectly aligned with one of real estate’s most important core values—location, location, location—which for this crowd has now become the single driving force vis a vis their real estate needs.
“My kids are all still in the neighborhood. I thought we would have moved to Florida by now but we really want to be in Teaneck and stay close to them. We love our home which we have lived in for 30 years and have no desire to leave it, but there is one big problem: I can no longer walk to shul.”
It’s not that I haven’t heard this before; at some point I think I will have heard everything, but as yet, that remains to be seen. What makes this so notable, however, is that I heard it from at least four potential buyers who were interested in the house. Design, layout, property size, number of bedrooms—all very important but firmly belted and buckled in the back seat. Priority number one—mobility. These customers want one-floor living which includes a bedroom on the first floor as an absolute must. If attending shul on Shabbat is a priority, the home must be within walking distance with a clear understanding that walking distance means one thing in your 20s and 30s and something entirely different in your 70s and 80s. Sometimes it’s not even distance that is such a factor but the steepness of a hill that one needs to contend with to make it home.
One buyer related a conversation they recently had with one of our town’s elected officials. “Why can’t we figure out how to build 55 and older multi-family housing within our existing communities? Older citizens can sell their larger, very desirable homes to new families, while moving into something much smaller and more convenient, and remaining solidly within the community?” Wow, was all I could think. I would move there in a heartbeat. I could think of many families who would jump at an opportunity like this. In the meantime, many of us will remain happily in our larger homes, while one day a week lament at how going over and down the hills and across the blocks of town is not as seamless an experience as it once was many decades ago.
No doubt the above option is still years away but it sounds like a win-win for everyone, especially my knees.
Nechama Polak is the broker of record and owner of V&N Group LLC, located at 1401 Palisade Avenue in Teaneck. Send your thoughts and comments to [email protected] or call 201 826 8809.
