Focus now on future flower buyers

As you prepare for the upcoming spring rush of consumers looking to landscape their yards and decorate their patios and decks, it might be a good idea to consider who is buying your product now and who will be buying it in the future. Most growers realize women make up the majority of our industry’s customer base. They’re either buying the product themselves or telling their significant other what to buy.

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What may not be as evident is the demographics when it comes to homeownership. This is significant because there are some dramatic changes occurring in the home-buying market that will impact who will be buying our product in the future.

As more baby boomers retire, these empty-nesters will be looking to downsize to smaller dwellings, including planned retirement communities and revitalized and refurbished urban centers. So who will be purchasing these boomers’ homes?

Based on information collected by the National Association of Realtors, there’s a good chance that the buyers of these existing homes, as well as new homes, will be single women or immigrants. NAR reports that more than 30 percent of all homebuyers in 2007 were single, with 22 percent being single women. Single women accounted for 18 percent of all homebuyers in 2004. Only 9 percent of single men were homebuyers in 2007.

Census Bureau data indicate that 51 percent of all U.S. adult women live without a spouse. These women are more financially independent and also better educated, accounting for about 57 percent of college graduates.

According to the 2004 State of the Nations Housing report, compiled by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, “social and economic trends have given women a more powerful presence in housing markets. Between 1980 and 2000, the number of households headed by unmarried women increased by almost 10 million.”

An economic force to be reckoned with

The rise in both legal and illegal immigration, reports the 2007 State of the Nations Housing, has resulted in the foreign born giving an increasingly large boost to population growth, averaging more than 1.2 million net immigrants annually since 2000. NAR reports that minority homeowners now account for 30 percent of home purchases.

“Largely as a result of immigration, minorities accounted for 27 percent of households in 2003 and will contribute at least two-thirds of net household growth in the coming decades,” said Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

In a July 2007 Boston Globe article, Retsinas wrote that 20 percent of 2006 homebuyers in California, Florida, New York and New Jersey, were new immigrants. He said he expects this immigrant home-buying pattern will spread throughout the country as more immigrants move away from coastal states. According to Retsinas, in 1990, 33 percent of all immigrants settled in California. In 2005, the number of immigrants settling there dropped to 25 percent. These immigrants are also settling in both metropolitan and rural areas. Retsinas said that from 2000-2004, 31 percent of net population growth in rural locations came from people born outside the United States. He said that in Nebraska, the fourth most common surname of homebuyers is Nguyen.

The 2007 State of the Nations Housing reports that minorities will account for 68 percent of the 14.6 percent projected growth in households between 2005-2015. Hispanics alone will account for 35 percent of this increase, covering all housing needs from apartments, starter homes and trade-up homes.

If you haven’t considered single women and immigrants an important part of your customer base, you may be missing out on potential sales. As these groups make up a bigger segment of the home-buying market, there is an opportunity to expand floral sales to complement their lifestyle needs.

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- David Kuack

April 2008