Close to Home

By Laura Koss-Feder

Suburban New Yorkers Sherwood and Hyaline Greenberg enjoyed spending winter months in Longboat Key, Fla., for several years. So when it came time for Sherwood to retire from his imported-knitwear business, he and his wife could logically have settled in Florida. But they wouldn't hear of it. Instead, they sold their house on Long Island and moved just 20 miles away to an apartment in Manhattan. There, instead of the warmth and tranquillity of the South, they enjoy the culture and vibrancy of the city--and, above all, the proximity of their two daughters and four grandchildren. "We love having the city right here at our fingertips, and it is so important to us to have our family nearby," says Sherwood, 74, who sees his daughters--one lives just four blocks away--as often as five times a week. "And with the tragedy of what happened on Sept. 11, it is especially a good feeling to know that your kids are right around you."

More and more senior citizens like the Greenbergs are deciding against traditional warm-weather retirement havens like Florida, Arizona and Southern California and are sticking closer to home. Realtors across the country say they are seeing 25% to 50% more retirees stay in or near their hometown, compared with five years ago. In fact, notes Kevin Roth, senior economist with the National Association of Realtors in Washington, "home buyers over the age of 65 move an average of just 15 miles away from their current abodes."

"As people live longer and more dynamic lives, they want to remain active in the communities they've known for so long," says Arlyne Leeds, sales associate in the Locust Valley, N.Y., real estate office of Insignia Douglas Elliman. Leeds estimates that only 2 out of 5 of her clients 65 and over are relocating to warmer climates. A year ago, it was 4 out of 5.

Seniors who are staying closer to home seem to reflect a renewed appreciation for family and community. "In the '80s and '90s, the older generation had more of an emphasis on remaining independent and autonomous," says Alan Clark, a Santa Monica, Calif., psychologist. "These days, there is more of a feeling among these people to stay connected to family and take an active role in one another's lives."

The Sept. 11 tragedies have reinforced that feeling, experts say. And the threat of further attacks in the U.S. gives seniors a greater sense of purpose in their hometowns. "Those who might have been thinking of retiring elsewhere will now instead feel the need to stay put to help out their families, neighbors and communities," predicts Marc Freedman, San Francisco-based author of Prime Time: How the Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America (Public Affairs).

Adult children of retirees want their parents to stay nearby. "This all makes you realize just how precious family is and that you don't want your loved ones living thousands of miles away at a time like this," says one of the Greenbergs' daughters, Caroline Crespo, 40.

Many who remain in or close to their hometowns have another motive: to more easily keep a job or start a business as they get older. About 35% to 50% of those who have officially retired choose to work part time, says Donald Davis, vice president for work-force development for the National Council on the Aging--all the more important now that retirement savings are being flattened by the economic downturn. "I'm noticing that about three-fourths of my clients ages 55 to 70 are working in some capacity and don't really want to move too far from their business contacts," observes Adorna Carroll, a partner in the Berlin, Conn., real estate firm of Realty 3 Carroll & Agostini.

The decision to remain has been made easier by the proliferation of retirement communities in four-season markets. For instance, the Del Webb Corp., based in Phoenix, Ariz., a developer of eight upscale retirement complexes, most in warmer climates, opened a community in Huntley, Ill., in 1998. Since then it has developed a facility in Romeoville, Ill., and the first residents are expected to move in during spring 2002, says Dave Schreiner, vice president of Del Webb's marketing and strategic-planning group. Another development is being built in Fredericksburg, Va., outside Washington.

It was an active seniors' environment and proximity to their daughter that enticed Mitchell and Norma Gattas to relocate from De Kalb, Ill., to Crest Hill, Ill., about an hour away. In September they moved into a one-story single-family home in a community for residents 55 and older called Carillon Lakes. The Gattas now live just 15 minutes away from their daughter, son-in-law and four-year-old granddaughter, whom they see almost every day. "Who needs Florida or Arizona?" says Norma, 71, a retired accounting assistant. "We can see our daughter any time we want, and we have every possible activity at our doorstep all year long."

The same was true for Rich and Mary Ellen Wholey of Wheaton, Ill., grandparents of 15 kids ages 3 months to 16 years. They toyed with the idea of moving to Arizona after snowbirding there for two winters. Instead, they bought a home in Carillon Lakes, 20 miles away. All but one of their five children live nearby. The Wholeys' nephew was killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, making them look at their decision to remain near their kids in a new light. "After going to our nephew's memorial service, we realized just how much we needed to hold on to family," says Mary Ellen, 65, a retired secretary.

Among those drawn back home by the lure of the familiar and comfortable are Harry and Linda Safstrom, who moved two years ago to a house in Lafayette, Colo., 45 minutes from their hometown of Englewood, Colo. The couple, who met in fourth grade, left the state in 1967 and spent the past 34 years in 17 different homes as Harry moved during his career with Dow Chemical Co. They now live near their siblings and parents. Harry's contacts in his hometown have made it easier for him to set up shop as a management consultant. "We traipsed all over the country for so long that we decided it was time to go back to where we had a real sense of belonging," says Harry, 56.

Just as important as family is the stability that close friends bring. William Bender, 71, a retired journalism professor at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., winces at the thought of abandoning his circle of friends for the Sun Belt. Bender joins about seven or eight pals for a lunch date every month. And Friday afternoons there is bratwurst and "a lot of beers" with a dozen friends at a local German restaurant called the Hofbrau. Bender, a widower with two grown daughters, enjoys attending concerts and other cultural events at Bradley. Although he says he could probably make friends anywhere, he insists that he wouldn't want to trade in his Peoria crowd for even the mildest of winters. Says he: "With all the different towns and cities that are out there for you to live in during your later years, sometimes you wind up finding that the grass is greener right on your own front yard."