50+ Lifestyles

New Senior Housing

It’s time to lace on the track shoes and run towards that new senior housing you’ve been thinking about. Here’s why.

….we encourage seniors who hope to acquire new housing this year to act sooner, rather than later, in order to take advantage of the $6,500 federal and $5,000-plus Davenport Now incentives and to benefit from current favorable mortgage rates.

By Dan Dolan
Dan Dolan Homes

Traditionally, the spring rush for new housing starts right after Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, some prospects even jump the gun a bit by coming in on Super Bowl Sunday. Often it’s groups of two women each who come in on that day. Immediately I can tell exactly what’s happening. The guys are at home “preparing” for the big gridiron event. Like preparing the food; icing the beverages; setting the odds of winning for the respective teams, etc. Their ladies, on the other hand, who may be less enthusiastic about the selection of the next NFL Champion, come in sans their respective mates to do the preliminary surveying of possibilities. But you can be sure that if the ladies find a home they think holds promise, they’ll be dragging in their football “warriors” for a look the following weekend or so. It happens every year.

But this year there’s additional pressure to act swiftly.

There’s a lower inventory of preferred new senior-friendly homes this year. Seniors generally prefer new homes because they tend to incorporate the lifestyle amenities that they seek including everything on one floor, wider doorways, stepless entry and step-in showers to name just a few of the features. But during the recent economic downturn, many builders held off on new construction preferring to wait for the turnaround. Admittedly, some builders will begin shortly but that’s a four-month construction cycle so homes will be coming on line in May-June and beyond. At Dan Dolan Homes we anticipated the turnaround months ago so we kept building. For instance, in Davenport we now have three homes nearing completion and we’ll be adding foundations for more as soon as the weather allows. Our additions in Muscatine, Blue Grass, Clinton and Iowa City are similarly positioned to fill the needs of senior home buyers.

But oops! The federal tax credit ends April 30 and requires a June 30 closing. That raises the risk of losing out on that $6,500 incentive. (Fortunately, the Davenport Now incentive for which Dan Dolan Homes qualify will continue beyond that period.)

Double oops! Have you noticed the recent dip in mortgage rates? Even for seniors who don’t plan or mortgaging their own home purchase that’s important because lower rates mean more qualifying buyers for the home they are selling. And that’s always a benefit.

At Dan Dolan Homes we’ve been promoting the Reverse Mortgage for Purchase that was approved by Congress just a year ago. For many seniors we believe that mechanism represents a viable option because it allows buyers to move in after just a one-time down payment with no
further mortgage payments ever. One of the factors in determining the down payment, however, is the prevailing mortgage rate. Every banker that I know believes that this mortgage rate downturn will be turning upward should inflation should set in. Accordingly, sooner is better than later for favorable financing.

Finally, we believe that material and labor costs will have to inch higher as federal (and perhaps state) mandatory programs require additional employee and employer outlays. Moreover, we see land costs continuing to rise so current home prices are further threatened any number of ways.

Once again, we encourage seniors who hope to acquire new housing this year to act sooner, rather than later, in order to take advantage of the $6,500 federal and $5,000-plus Davenport Now incentives and to benefit from current favorable mortgage rates. As usual, our Realtor staff is available weekends at our various Saturday and Sunday open houses. For hours at the various locations call me at 570-1460 or call Don Gibeault at 650-8007.