Green Acres was a television program that ran from 1965 to 1971 that featured an older socialite couple from New York City leaving their Manhattan digs for the rustic charm of the country. The photo above is from that program.
But is this happening locally? I had coffee with a business owner who caters to the baby boomers. He is looking for solid trends of where and what this age co-hort is doing, and what they are doing with that cashed out equity from Vancouver real estate. The Vancouver Sun is also curious, and Nick Eagland’s article suggests Boomers are buying the farm in the Fraser Valley. While the numbers are not huge, it is suggestive of a trend for boomers to cash out and locate in more salubrious and pastoral farms and acreages. So much for everyone looking for that townhouse or condo downtown.
The New York Times examines the opposite-the plight of older citizens in the New York City suburbs who hoped to cash out of their large houses for a small pied a terre in New York City where they can age in place with minimal stairs and no snow shovelling.
Those boomers are however too late-in the last fifteen years the values of apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn have risen more than the value of the suburban homes, leaving them stranded in the suburbs.
And back to Vancouver-Ladner and Tsawwassen in Delta have seen an increase of almost 40 per cent in property values in the last year, and other Metro municipalities have also seen increases. Is this due to first timers buying into the market, or older empty nesters looking for their own version of those Green Acres?
There are plenty of townhomes and condos in the burbs. No shoveling required, not that we get any snow in Metro Vancouver.