Once the steadiest of economic sectors, the U.S. housing market has been on a roller coaster ride for 20 years. Bush administration policy aimed at easing a slow economy supercharged the housing market, sparking high levels of new construction and home price appreciation. The artificial stimulus created a housing bubble that nearly wrecked the global economy, which led to almost a decade of underbuilding and record low mortgage rates. By the late 2010s, housing was on a growth path again and the tight supply of homes for sale – new or existing – superheated home prices. The housing market pendulum was swinging widely.
Amid this pendulum swing from one extreme to another, the market for low-maintenance housing has been steady. Built primarily for empty nesters, low-maintenance housing has seen steady demand. As a smaller portion of the housing market, low-maintenance housing has seen its share of the market grow with fewer development struggles. Builders of low-maintenance housing have seen the market deepen, with demand coming from younger buyers. Builders see less disruption to the low-maintenance product than the overall market has experienced.
Defining the Category
Low-maintenance is an obvious description of the product. Owning a home has always meant accepting the inconvenience of keeping it up. Yards need mowed. Landscaping needs to be trimmed and cared for. The exterior of the home is exposed to conditions that cause problems for homeowners to attend. Snow needs to be removed. Maintaining a home costs time and money, but it is generally accepted as the price to be paid for having the benefits of the family home.
For homeowners who have raised families and fought the good fight for home maintenance for decades, owning a home that someone else maintains, or requires less upkeep, is an attractive option. While that has undoubtedly been true for many generations, it was the prosperity and size of the Silent and Baby Boomer generations that created the opportunity for developers and builders to give older Americans an option for increased convenience and complete independence.
Some elements of low-maintenance living have always existed, primarily at the higher end of the market. Wealthy communities have offered enhanced security. Homeowners’ associations ensure that high appearance standards are maintained. Often, the preferred style of low-maintenance home was a condominium, which eliminated the need for maintenance while giving residents a community environment under one roof. The advantages of the low-maintenance housing development of the past 20 years or so are that these benefits, and much more, are available to a broader range of homeowners at affordable prices.
In the 1990s, as builders began to recognize the market opportunity from the coming wave of retiring Baby Boomers, firms began to specialize in this product and design housing options that were quite different from the traditional approach to elderly housing. Americans had become healthier in the 1970s and 1980s, eating better and exercising. The average American – and Pittsburgher – began to live longer and remain active well into their 70s and 80s. More Americans shifted their thinking about retirement planning and had greater wealth and income after working that previous generations had. This more widespread confluence of health and wealth meant that older homeowners were looking to continue an active lifestyle after downsizing from their family home.
The pioneering firms in developing these new lifestyle communities focused on building homes that were attractive and easy to live in. Generally, builders designed attached single-family homes, often in quadplexes, that had first floor master suites and room for children and grandchildren to occupy on visits. The community provided groundskeeping and snow removal. Homes were energy efficient and comfortable and made easy use of new technology. Usually, there was a clubhouse and swimming pool that residents could access. There was enhanced home security. Firms like Epcon Communities and Traditions of America created portfolios of floor plans that could be replicated on any site. That established a construction model that was predictable, affordable, and easy to buy. Local firms like Scarmazzi Homes and Weaver Homes – both Epcon builders – oriented their businesses around this 55-plus lifestyle community and thrived.
As more competitors eyed a piece of the empty nester market, and more homeowners became empty nesters, the residential product that was being developed evolved. Builders designed homes that were closer to that of the family home. Kitchens became larger and better appointed. Flex rooms were added that could function as offices, dens, or extra bedrooms. The biggest change in design was a move to detached homes, as more buyers balked at living in an attached home. The clubhouse concept was expanded to become more of a community lifestyle center, resembling a combination of a comfortable family room and the neighborhood bar/restaurant.
These shifts in design added costs to the low-maintenance home, but builders quickly found that buyers were more than willing to pay for what was a hybrid of the family home without the hassles. As the base of low-maintenance homebuyers expanded, so did the offering of low-maintenance homes. In the 2020s, the low-maintenance market has bifurcated.
Defining the Homeowner
“That 55-plus buyer wants to spend their time enjoying life and their grandkids, not working in their yard. Low-maintenance is almost a ‘must have’ for them,” says Eric Nicholl, president at Foxlane Homes. “We try to build exterior facades that require little or no maintenance. But in those communities, you’re also eliminating snow removal from driveways and streets. All the landscaping and lawn care is handled. Low-maintenance is a make or break thing for the 55-plus homeowner.”
“On the market rate homes there are more two-income families that don’t just have the kind of time for maintenance” he continues. “They might not be looking for no-maintenance, but they’re not willing to spend all their free time taking care of their house.”
Liam Brennan, vice president at Infinity Custom Homes, has seen a different type of bifurcation in the market. A builder of custom single-family homes, Infinity Custom Homes has developed several townhome projects that cater to a higher end buyer that is looking for a different experience as they age out of the family home.
“The demographic is the empty nester who is not ready for a 55-plus community. It may be a second home, so they are traveling a lot. They are leaving their big house in the suburbs and buying an $800,000 townhome,” Brennan says.
Infinity Custom Homes built The Enclave in Seven Fields and Waterfront Place in the Strip District within the past five years. Each project had roughly 55 luxury townhouses of 3,000 to 3,500 square feet, selling for $800,000 to $1,200,000.
“The city opportunities are unique when you can get them. It’s very attractive to be in the Strip District and not be in a condo. In those you can pull your car into a garage that is yours, instead of a parking garage,” Brennan says. “We thought we would see higher-income young professionals as buyers at The Enclave, but it has been almost exclusively the 50-something empty nester who doesn’t see themselves as old and is not ready for a 55-plus community.”
The low-maintenance sector of the housing market is still in its early stages relative to the traditional single-family or senior housing sectors and will probably evolve to attract more buyers looking for something other than the 55-plus community; however, the lion’s share of the low-maintenance market remains that lifestyle community. For the builders serving that cohort of buyers, there are some subtle changes in demand.
“It’s still fundamentally that living environment that people are looking for. They want low maintenance, single story living, in a highly-amenitized community where they are among peers,” says Paul Scarmazzi, CEO of Scarmazzi Homes. “That said, there are some new options. The demographic has become younger from a mental standpoint. You have to stay relevant to the market, give people what they’re looking for.”
“Ten years ago, we were very proud of our plans, but we didn’t change them. Now we are willing to customize. We’re willing to meet a customer where they are, move a wall or delete something,” he continues. “We are not a true custom builder but we’re not a production builder, which was what we used to be.”
“I would say our customer base is trending a little younger. Before we would see a buyer who has recently retired. Now it is someone who is still working but is an empty nester,” says Jason Corna, vice president, residential division, at A. R. Kacin Companies. “They’re thinking about right sizing and doing less with a yard and a bigger house. We’re seeing a bigger population starting in their mid-50s. Ten years ago, that was probably the mid-60s. We’re seeing a lot more people whose kids have just left for college instead of people getting ready to retire.”
Corna notes that the biggest change that has occurred with the low-maintenance design as the buyers have trended younger is in the floor plan.
“The floor plans have become much more open and flowing. That changed five or six years ago,” he recalls. “Otherwise, it’s fairly status quo. If you have a great floor plan, use great products and have a great build, you’ll do well around here.”
Scarmazzi says his firm has focused on the construction process itself to differentiate his projects.
“There is an emphasis on experiences. It’s not just the younger generations looking for that. We strive to create a great experience for people even during construction. That’s hard to do,” he says.
“Building the house is relatively easy compared to managing that experience. There are different professionals involved with the process along the way. We are using something called Builders Signal. Our customer gets an update every week from our superintendents to keep clear communications and manage their expectations about delivering the home. The customer ends up with an album of the build process that lives on after closing.”
Defining the Future of Low Maintenance Living
None of the builders look forward to a dramatic change in demand for low maintenance living until the Baby Boomers age out of home ownership, which should not occur for another 15 years or so. Despite the trend towards a younger buyer, there is no evidence that low-maintenance communities will replace the traditional family home for the majority of homeowning families. That does not mean there will not be changes and challenges to meet.
Affordability is a challenge that is already creeping up on builders. As many as 70 percent of low-maintenance home buyers do not borrow money to purchase their home, but that does not mean that the market can rise indefinitely. And, even with the robust home price appreciation of recent years, the cost of new residential development is rising faster.
“We don’t just assume that the Boomer generation can afford whatever we want to build, so we are trying to take steps to have affordable offerings. It is a difficult task to bring something in under $400,000,” Scarmazzi explains. “We have looked at different plans. We have a duplex plan now that we can bring in under $400,000 and we have a first-floor master townhome product that we’re not building yet but will be within the next year. The attached product just builds more efficiently, and you can bring the price down.”
The move back towards attached homes is a break in the trend, but one that may be necessary to allow some of the new developments to offer more affordable homes.
“Frankly, we take what the market gives us and by the market I mean the land. If we can increase the density somewhat by putting in quads or duplexes, we’ll do it,” Scarmazzi says. “That is a differentiator from a price standpoint.”
Adding density is not always going to be an affordability solution, particularly if the builders and developers do not have the economies of scale on a project to support the lower sales price.
“Generally speaking, people would rather be in a detached home than an attached home. We typically get a higher price for a detached single-family home than an attached one,” says Nicholl. “Often you are not getting that much more density by attaching them. Most of what we’re building is on narrow lots, so that the gains from attaching homes does not outweigh the discount in the price for an attached home.”
Developing attached homes may also face more difficult entitlement issues. After more than a decade of municipal zoning trends towards higher density, there are local municipalities in Western PA that are doing away with the planned residential development (PRD)
zoning, which enabled much of the suburban townhouse development of the past two decades. Busy Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County eliminated PRD zoning, and three of the municipalities in southern Butler County have or are considering the same.
“We’re not seeing any pushback for the projects that we have going on,” says Corna, whose firm is working on a project in Hempfield Township. “We are aware of municipalities that are doing away with the planned residential development zoning. They are not trying to eliminate more density but would rather approve them on a project-by-project basis.”
The consensus seems to be that this trend will not limit low-maintenance communities, but it is a trend that will make development even more expensive. Eliminating PRD zoning eliminates the use-by-right for higher density communities like the 55-plus developments. That adds uncertainty to the development process, even if there is some assurance of approval. And developers do not like uncertainty.
Despite the development challenges, the strong demand for low-maintenance housing will keep new projects coming. The City of Pittsburgh has the potential to become a boom town for market-rate low-maintenance housing, with thousands of available lots that were previously attached units. Until Pittsburgh aligns its planning and zoning practices with the supply of available land, new projects will drip rather than boom. That means that most of the new construction of low-maintenance housing will be in the suburbs.
Currently, Traditions of America is nearing completion on a project in Cecil Township and beginning a new community in West Deer Township.
Infinity Custom Homes will be starting another smaller project in the Strip District at the Brickworks development and has low-maintenance homes under construction at Laurel Point in Cranberry Township and Freeport Green in Marshall Township.
Kacin Companies is completing Hillstone Village in Murrysville and North Meadows in Washington Township, in addition to the new project in Hempfield Township.
Weaver Homes is nearing completion of the Courtyard at Hidden Falls in Indiana Township and are very active in southern Butler County. Among those projects are Woodland Preserve in Jackson Township, Villas at Forest Oaks in Center Township and Butler Township. Weaver is also building Lakeside Village in Economy Borough in Beaver County and the Ridgewood Heights in West Deer Township.
Scarmazzi Homes is finishing Highland Village in Union Township, Washington County, and Villas of South Park in South Park Township. Scarmazzi is building Moniger Heights and Belmont Park in Chartiers Township. It is starting work on a 48-lot community in Hopewell Township in Beaver County, called Courtyard at Legends, and Sir Henry’s Haven, a 14-lot luxury duplex community in Kennedy Township. In the pipeline is a large new community in Cecil Township.
Paul Scarmazzi observes that the market for low-maintenance living is maturing. He says that he is seeing competition from existing low-maintenance building stock for the first time, a phenomenon that does not concern him about future development prospects.
“It’s not that prevalent because the people buying those homes live in them for a long time,” he says. “They are not seven years and out.” NH