Concerns Regarding Re-sale
But what about resale?
Eleanor Smith believes so strongly that homes should be designed for everyone that she started her own nonprofit organization, Concrete Change, to help make it happen. She works with cities such as Irvine, Calif., and Austin, Texas, to make basic age-in-place features standard in building codes.
Such a grassroots approach is an offshoot of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that opened access for the disabled to public, commercial and multifamily residential buildings. The federal legislation, however, does not apply to single-family homes so some states and municipalities are slowly bridging that gap.
Concrete Change also promotes incentives such as favorable loan rates for homebuyers of houses that are more accessible and functional for the young, old and disabled who live there or are visiting. "We hope to induce people to build their homes without the major barriers in the first place so they won't have to face the rather steep costs to retrofit," she says. Lee says the effects are already being felt in the housing market. "What is becoming more common are wider doorways as standard, and configurations within the bathrooms and kitchens that can be easily adjusted to accommodate the appropriate accessibility," says the Illinois real estate professional.
And shades of the 1950s, Lee says the single-level ranch home is back, in part a reflection of a shift in preference for single-floor living. Barring unsightly exterior ramps, she says age-in-place features won't hurt resale, especially as the baby boomer buyer pool, in the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett, grows older but not up.
It's high time many of these features became standard, regardless of the age or health of the homeowner. "It truly becomes value-added. It becomes an investment more than an expense," says the design company president. "God forbid, you or I get hit by a car and break both legs, we're only going to be in a wheelchair for a few months, but how the heck do you live within your own home if that happens?"