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Boomers' Housing Preferences Segment by Segment — Success through Differentiation
February 28, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013 — 9:15 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
Boomers’ Housing Preferences Segment by Segment — Success through Differentiation
Ninety percent of the baby boomers who plan to move will move to traditional, all-age housing communities. Still, the positioning, lifestyle, and product provided by the community will be most successful if it is customer-centric and targeted to appeal to specific market sectors as opposed to trying to be all things to all people. This session will explore the many faces and housing preferences of consumers who are 55-plus years of age. Who are they and what to do they want?
Additional Session Resources:
Speaker Biographies and Presentations
Margaret A. Wylde, ProMatura Group LLC (moderator)
Margaret Wylde founded ProMatura Group LLC in 1984. She was recently installed as chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Senior Housing Council. Wylde serves on the board of directors of the American Seniors Housing Association, and she formerly served on the boards of the American Society on Aging, National Association of Senior Living Industries, and Seniors Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders. She is frequently invited to speak at conferences and programs throughout the United States and Canada.
Wylde is a faculty member at the Erickson School at the University of Maryland in the Executive Development Program for the age-qualified housing industry. She has been a faculty member since the program’s inception in 1999 by Johns Hopkins University/National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry.
The author of five books and dozens of technical papers and articles, Wylde is also a contributor to trade and business publications and scholarly journals. Her publications include Right House, Right Place, Right Time: The Community and Lifestyle Preferences of the 45+ Housing Market (BuilderBooks, 2008); Boomers on the Horizon: Housing Preferences of the 55+ Home Buyer (BuilderBooks, 2002); and Building for a Lifetime: The Design and Construction of Fully Accessible Homes (Taunton Press, 1994).
Wylde is often sought out for her expertise by various news and trade publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Overseas Property Professional magazine, Senior Housing News, and 50+ Housing. In 2007, she received the Icon of the Industry Award from the 50+ Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders for her “substantial and lasting impact on the seniors’ housing industry.”
Helen Foster, Foster Strategy LLC
Helen Foster, principal of Foster Strategy LLC, is a nationally recognized marketing and development strategist specializing in age-qualified real estate. As a consultant to some of the nation’s top 50+ developers—including active-adult communities, continuing care retirement communities, master plans, and forward-thinking cities and states—she helps to identify boomer development opportunities and strengthen product concepts. Common assignments include marketing assessments, product/brand development, lifestyle programming, sales training, and marketing advisory services.
Foster is active as a speaker, a judge, an adviser, and an editorial contributor for major industry organizations including the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC), the National Association of Home Builders’ 50+ Housing Council, the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Senior Housing Council.
Paul Johnson, Rancho Mission Viejo
Paul Johnson is the senior vice president of community development for Rancho Mission Viejo, which oversees design and implementation of master-planned communities. Management responsibilities are currently focused on the development of the Ranch Plan located in south Orange County. His responsibilities are to oversee and lead the project’s urban design, development, marketing, builder land sales and administration, and the master maintenance corporation. Specific to these areas of responsibility are the project’s scheduling, budgets, land design, working drawings, builder coordination, land sales, and operation of the master maintenance/community service corporations.
Prior to joining Rancho Mission Viejo, Johnson was a project manager for the Fieldstone Company’s Newport Beach office in Orange County and was responsible for the coordination and completion of all aspects of a project. This included land acquisition, entitlement, product development, marketing, construction, and homebuyer warranty.
Johnson is a past president of the Orange County Home Builders Council and BIA/OC. He is currently serving on the executive board for the Building Industry Association/Southern California.
Johnson received a BA degree in urban studies and engineering from California State University at Northridge and has an MBA from California State College at San Bernardino. He also holds a B-1 general building contractor’s license.
Scott Gensler, Erickson Living
As vice president of business development at Erickson Living, Scott Gensler identifies and evaluates new business opportunities for Erickson Living, the nation’s leading developer and manager of continuing care retirement communities. Throughout Gensler’s 15-year tenure with Erickson Living, he has served in many leadership positions and has extensive knowledge of key aspects of the senior living business, including finance, sales and marketing, and operations.
Gensler serves as the vice chair of the Fund for Education Excellence, a local education fund working to improve student achievement in Baltimore City Schools. He earned an MBA from the Sellinger School of Business at Loyola College and a BS from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.