Trend of the Future
As Baby Boomers get older, they are going to push real estate in a new direction: homes with “senior friendly features.”
While some states and municipalities are focusing on things like “no steps at the entrance, a bathroom on the ground floor and wider doorways,” there are other things to make a home more senior friendly. Many of these features are also just plain family friendly. My community, for example, has lever door handles that are easily operated by arthritic hands (or an elbow, when my hands are full of laundry or groceries!). Large sized lightswitches are only about 4′ off the ground, easily operated by someone in a wheelchair — or a child. Many of the multi-level floorplans have a downstairs bedroom that can also be used as an office.
Unfortunately, Vegas is being pushed in two different trends at the same time: on one hand, our huge retiree community and the aging Baby Boomers mean we need plenty of single-story housing; on the other hand, the simple geography of limited space in the Valley means we need to build more land efficient, multi-story housing. As a result, single-story floorplans will very likely sell at a premium for the forseeable future in Vegas.