When Jody Wainio needed a home at a certain price with features that would allow her 89-year-old mother to live with her comfortably, she couldn’t find one.

“So I ended up buying a lot and building and designing a home that would meet our needs,” said Wainio, a Realtor and president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors. 

A recent national study on the housing problems baby boomers face, including shortages, high costs and a lack of accessibility features, comes as no surprise to Wainio and other local real estate professionals. Baby boomers are typically defined as those born between 1946 and 1964.

“America’s older population is in the midst of unprecedented growth, but the country is not prepared to meet the housing needs of this aging group,” concluded a study released Sept. 2 by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and AARP Foundation.

The Cape Fear region has typically been a popular spot for people who are part of that older population.

“We’re a mecca for active retirees in Wilmington,” said Harrison Peebles, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage, whose clients include a number of retirees from other parts of the country looking for homes here.

By 2030, the U.S. population aged 50 and older will increase to 132 million, according to estimated projections. In New Hanover County in 1990, this age group made up 26 percent of the population, a number that grew to 32 percent by 2010, according to census figures cited by the housing study.
In Brunswick County, 46.6 percent of the residents were 50 and older four years ago, up from 32.9 percent 20 years earlier.

At the same time, the number of older people who will have less cash is on the rise, the study concluded.

“Assuming that the current income distribution of households aged 65 and over remains the same, 6.5 million households will have incomes under $15,000 – a jump of 1.8 million, or 37 percent, in a single decade,” according to the housing report.

Two local developments currently under construction – Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall and Cambridge Village on Eastwood Road – will cater to baby boomers who can afford a more upscale lifestyle.

Those who rent at Carolina Bay will pay $3,500 to $5,500 a month, according to promotional materials, which also highlight the community’s amenities and services that come with that cost, including utilities, wireless Internet and scheduled transportation, among others.

But many members of the generation born in the years following World War II are expected to need cheaper housing, the study said.

“High housing costs currently force a third of adults 50 and over – including 37 percent of those 80 and over – to pay more than 30 percent of their income for homes that may or may not fit their needs, forcing them to cut back on food, health care and, for those 50-64, retirement savings,” the report concluded.

Facts like these leave Wainio and others with questions.

“Where do you go if you don’t have family to stay with?” Wainio said. “You go from working where you lived paycheck to paycheck to a fixed income where it’s less than what you were making paycheck to paycheck … You end up staying with family, or you go into the raggediest apartment complex where it’s not safe for older people to live. It truly is a problem for the lower- to
moderate-income folks that are in that age group.”

Still, the need for places to live seems to apply across the board.

“At all levels, there’s going to be a shortage,” said Jeff Hovis, a broker with Intracoastal Realty and chairman of the Wilmington Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. “There’s already a shortage for those in need.”

Baby boomers and older people looking for a new place to live often seem to lean toward renting a home, wanting to get away from the hassles of ownership, Hovis said.

While there are a lot of apartments in the works in the area, many “are aimed at a younger population,” Hovis said.

And current rental availability in general seems to be down, he said.

“It’s hard to find a three-bedroom for someone who wants to rent, especially long term in some of the better neighborhoods because as soon as it’s up, it’s rented,” Hovis said.

Wainio said she believes she would be able to sell her property easily because of the way she designed the home. Those features include two master suites on either side of the home and a room above the garage in case Wainio needs to hire live-in help for her mother at some point. She said she was lucky to find a lot in a nice area and a highly sought-after size that would accommodate what she wanted.

“I’ll be able to sell this house any day. I’ve been here three months, and if I put a sign up tomorrow, it’ll be gone in a week,” Wainio said, though she doesn’t plan to sell it any time soon.