Years ago, when someone mentioned senior citizens, I imagined some guy walking around with the waistband of his checkered trousers positioned just below his armpits. You know the look.

Now that I am older, much older, I realize that belittling image does not reflect today’s reality.

Seniors are re-inventing themselves.

At what point does one become a senior? Seems to me the entry level is getting younger.

Forget 65, these days businesses offer discounts to folks 60, 55, even 50 years of age. Restaurants offer time-restricted specials, although there is no definitive word on whether or not 50-year-old diners can be convinced to chow down at the buffet line at 4 p.m.

Recently, the 400,000-member Canadian Association of Retired Persons gave itself a kinder, gentler moniker — Canada‘s Association for the 50-plus. Smart marketing move because that repositioning strategy likely provides a significant boost to the organization’s membership-recruitment potential.

Today’s seniors set high expectations for themselves. They are optimistic about their future. They expect to live longer, many of them past 80 with no major health complications.

Seniors are transforming life stages and consumer trends. Many are more physically active now than they were 20-30 years earlier. Sensible diets, stress-reduction strategies, social interaction and regular exercise are all part of their daily regimen. They ride beefed-up motorbikes, take yoga and spin classes, join running and walking clubs, learn how to golf, enrol in dance classes, go back to school, purchase vacation homes, even spend a buck — both men and women — on cosmetic surgery.

In years past, precious little was understood about the housing needs of the growing seniors population. Just when someone believed they had them figured out, they quickly determined, usually when gobs of money had already been spent, that they had travelled down a dead-end marketing path. Even today, the many levels of housing needs challenge even the most savvy marketing gurus.

Thankfully there are countless workshops, seminars and focus groups that help builders and their marketing consultants to determine what active seniors want and what they don’t want.

For example, an American organization, the National Association of Home Builders, is presenting a major conference, billed as a must-attend event, entitled Building for Boomers and Beyond: Seniors Housing Symposium 2005. A record attendance is expected. A brochure promoting an upcoming seminar urges builders to pay close attention to seniors. “This swelling customer base will no longer be merely a niche, it will be the single largest market segment of consumers.”

So, what type of homes does this emerging, influential demographic group want? Before I get into that, a clarification. In this column I will focus on housing choices for active, financially independent seniors. I will leave the examination of assisted-living or acute-care housing for another day, but it certainly is a sober, engaging issue that definitely should be examined in great detail at a later date.

Many of today’s active seniors rattle around in their large homes after their grown children leave the nest, so they decide to downsize. A couple I met recently sold their detached home on Vancouver‘s west side for more than $800,000 and purchased a townhome in Surrey for under $400,000.

What a great deal! They are leaving an older, high-maintenance home in need of upgrading and moving to a new, low-maintenance townhome loaded with modern conveniences and protected by the strongest warranty in Canada. There is no mortgage on either home. So now they have more than $400,000 left over for savings, travel, and as is the case with the couple I spoke with, help their only child buy his first home in a townhome project about five miles from mom and dad’s new place.

I met the couple at a just-opened Surrey townhome project, and together we toured two showhomes on display. The home the three of us preferred was a two-level, three-bedroom model with a master bedroom and ensuite bath on the main floor, and two secondary bedrooms on the level below, which also contained a four-piece bath, and recreation room with a walkout to a patio and small yard. A large unfinished room, perfect for storage or workshop, completed the layout.

The man and his wife, both in their late 50s, said they loved the fact they could enter the main level from the double garage and all their day-to-day living would take place on that one level which, in addition to the master suite, included a living room, dining area, family room, powder room, laundry nook and spacious kitchen with a walkout to a deck. The lower level will be reserved for guests.

Although the one-level-living concept was viewed as convenient by the couple, it might some day become a necessity as the inevitable aging process presents some health and mobility challenges.

The couple mentioned the word downsizing many times because their new townhome was indeed smaller than the one they sold in Vancouver, but after the tour they agreed the home actually felt larger because of its high ceilings, window placements and comfortable, open-concept design.

This project also has a huge clubhouse complex that rivals many resorts, complete with pool, hot tub, pool tables and party room. The couple said they are looking forward to spending a lot of leisure time there now that they don’t have to deal with strenuous yard work and exterior maintenance chores.

There are millions more seniors like the couple I met. Although there are innovative developments similar to the one we toured, the homebuilding industry is merely scratching the surface when it comes to providing homes to this diverse, demanding and discriminating cohort.

Look out world, the seniors are coming, and coming, and coming.

Peter Simpson is chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association. Email [email protected]. Website www.gvhba.org.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005