Real-estate professional catering to the 'carriage trade' will face an increasingly competitive and challenging market due to three major lifestyle shifts in the consumer market
Stevens, PA (PRWEB) May 28, 2015
A new trend report from Unity Marketing, Marketing Real Estate in New-Luxury Style, reveals several key trends challenging marketers selling high-end real estate:
- Slow rate at of household formation. Last year fewer than half-million new households were formed, less than half the rate of 1.3 million new households from the previous two years. Further, most of these new households are renting, rather than owning, according to the Census Department's Current Population Survey.
- Baby Boomers downsizing as they reach retirement. Some 10,000 or so Boomers will be retiring every day through 2029 and with retirement comes new housing needs. Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the new report explains, "Boomers bought their homes in the 80s and 90s, when bigger was better and ‘McMansions’ the then American dream home. But many Boomers will have to tap the equity in their homes to finance their post-retirement lifestyles. Net/Net: They will be leaving behind a mounting inventory of big, expensive homes that the much smaller GenX cohort can’t absorb."
- Changing preferences and priorities in homes. The Millennial generation, as large in size as Boomers, but delayed in getting married, setting up new households and investing in home ownership, brings a whole new standard into the housing market. "Many of them grew up in the Boomer McMansions that will be coming on the market, which may well not be the kind of home they want. The “Tiny House” movement” is more than a reality television show but a real trend and the “Not So Big House” popularized by Sarah Susanka offers an environmentally and financially responsible way to live for the responsibly-minded Millennial generation," Danziger says.
"A rising tide lifts all boats, and up till the Great Recession, the high-end real-estate market was enjoying high waters. But the tide has turned. [Redfin, a Seattle-based firm that tracks purchases of the most expensive 5% of homes sold in America, just released a report that found in the first quarter 2015 the prices for luxury homes grew at their slowest pace in three years, and that it took longer for such homes to sell," Danziger says.
Yes, there was a rebound from 2012-2013, but the high-end real estate market, with few regional exceptions, looks to be settling down into a ‘new normal.’ Real-estate professionals catering to the ‘carriage trade’ will have to work harder, work smarter and simply be better than the rest to capture what will be an increasingly competitive and challenging market.
To give real-estate professionals insights to succeed in a ‘new normal’ more competitive high-end housing market, Unity Marketing has published a new trend report, Marketing Real Estate in New-Luxury Style: A one-size-fits-all strategy won’t work. This report includes eye-opening statistics, powerful analysis and take aways about the high-end consumer and how to thrive selling to a new more value-oriented luxury home customer.
More about Marketing Real Estate in New-Luxury Style report
To understand the luxury home real-estate market, you need three perspectives:
- Demographics of customers who can afford to buy luxury homes
- Purchase behavior of those ‘qualified’ buyers
- Consumer psychology reveals how to talk and communicate with each special luxury home buyer segment based upon their special needs and desires in their homes.
This report provides all three. Plus, it includes a special section devoted to the next generation of luxury home buyers – the Millennials – and their aspirations about the homes they have in their future.
Success in luxury real estate begins with understanding the needs and desires of luxury home buyers. Let Unity Marketing be your research partner for the affluent housing market.
About Pam Danziger & Unity Marketing
Pamela N. Danziger is an internationally recognized expert specializing in consumer insights for marketers targeting the affluent consumer. She is president of Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded in 1992. Pam received the Global Luxury Award for top luxury industry achievers presented at the Global Luxury Forum in 2007 by Harper's Bazaar. Luxury Daily named Pam to its list of "Women to Watch in 2013." She is a member of Jim Blasingame: The Small Business Advocate’s Brain Trust and a contributing columnist to The Robin Report.
Pam's latest book is Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury: How new consumer values are redefining the way we market luxury(Paramount Market Publishing, 2011). Her other books include Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience, published by Kaplan Publishing in October 2006; Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses-as well as the Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover) and Why People Buy Things They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior (Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004).