Boomers reinvent Sun City retirement community

• Retirees are still having fun in the Sun %28City%29
• Boomers find it%27s a good fit for active lives
• Older retirement community still has life in it for rtirees

Retirees might not line up to buy homes in Sun City as they did when it opened on New Year's Day 1960. Nor are the two bowling alleys as busy as they once were, or golfers having to endure long waits anymore before they tee off on its eight courses.

But today's Sun City isn't a fading image of yesterday's retirement dream. Powered by a stream of renovation-minded younger buyers, the first big retirement community in the West is evolving.

Updated stucco exteriors are found across the street from the 1960s and 1970s cement-block houses. Pickleball courts and upgraded gyms coexist with golf carts and bowling shoes.

And most of the 27,000 Sun City houses built by Del Webb are occupied as Sun City catches some of the first wave of Baby Boomer retirees, many of whom are young enough to be the grandchildren of its original residents.

Newer, flashier developments may get more attention, but residents, real-estate agents and market watchers believe the old community that defined retirement for an earlier generation still has a lot of life left in it.

Some of its tan cement-block homes retain their original look, and the community still has blocks dotted with front yards reminiscent of the 1960s — covered with gravel, sometimes painted green. But new buyers, an average of seven a day for the past two years, are purchasing the relatively low-dollar properties and remaking them, and the community, one household at a time.

Sun City was a development experiment from the start, offering a chance for the first generation of middle-income Americans retiring with the financial stability of Social Security to move from their hometown and mingle with like-minded peers. The concept was wildly successful, with more than 100,000 people visiting Sun City in its first few months.

Now, the community is a petri dish again, an experiment in whether older, large age-restricted communities will thrive or fall into decay in the Baby Boomer era. Newer concepts are being launched just miles away, including DMB Associates' Victory at Verrado, which is being created by the Scottsdale-based developer as a new model for Boomer-friendly communities.

Victory could lure away prospective Sun City buyers. But not every retiree wants, or can afford, posh new digs.

THE BOOMER IMPACT

The leading edge of the Boomer generation is beginning to redefine retirement in America. Some, born from 1946 through 1964, are buying in the original Sun City.

Gary and Deanna Junso purchased a $200,000 house in Sun City in 2011. The couple, in their mid-60s, now start their annual three-day drive from South Dakota to their winter home the day after Thanksgiving.

Gary retired four years ago as a vice president with a national food company. The couple looked at newer retirement communities, including Sun City Grand, about 10 miles northwest of the original Sun City, and Sun City West, the community in between the two.

The Junsos had spent years visiting Gary's parents in Sun City and decided they wanted to live in the original community, citing its affordability. On top of the purchase price, the Junsos spent almost $200,000 renovating the 2,650-square-foot house, which was built in 1978. They gutted the kitchen and master bathroom, tore down several walls to open up the house, enclosed the back patio and added custom doors and bookcases.

"We had been out there a number of times, and for us, given the difference in price, the (larger) size of the lots, we still feel that Sun City was a better value," Gary Junso said. "There is always a younger buyer for that house that turns over."

The Junsos have enticed friends to follow them to Sun City. "Sun City sort of sells itself when people from South Dakota come to visit in the winter," Deanna said.

Prospective buyers can choose from apartments and two-bedroom houses of less than 1,000 square feet to roomy ranch-style homes that approach 3,000 square feet.

Jack Chalupkaof Ken Meade Realty said the original Sun City's affordability is one of its big draws.

"If you have a $100,000 pocketbook, that is typically a two-bed, two-bath that is in the Sun City area," he said.

CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS

The steady demand and property improvements are in turn pushing up Sun City home prices.

Sun City's median home price was about $100,000 two years ago. Now, the typical house there costs about $128,750, compared with $190,000 in Sun City West and $240,000 in Sun City Grand.

"Past stereotypes of Sun City are wrong," said Arizona housing analyst RL Brown, who lives in the community with his wife, Joann. "When my parents lived in what is our house, I thought, 'No way will I ever live there.' But Sun City is evolving with its residents."

About 26% of Sun City residents are younger than 65, according to U.S. census data. As in most age-restricted communities, at least one of a home's residents has to be 55 or older.

Sun City's median household income is about $36,903, according to the Census numbers. That's about $13,000 less than Arizona's median household income.

Boomers generally plan to work some in their retirement, surveys show, and Sun City's location puts these part-time retirees closer to major employment centers. About 6,000 Sun City residents say they work and commute.

AN ORIGINAL MODEL

Sun City, now the pioneer in reinvention, always seemed on the leading edge of retirement issues. The night before developer Del E. Webb opened the community for home sales, he and a handful of his executives had dinner. It then dawned on one of his salesmen that they were going to have to try to sell homes with 30-year mortgages to people 55 and older.

In 1960, most retirees didn't expect to live past 75. Webb had already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars building the first model homes, streets and recreation center for Sun City.

The next day, Jan.1, 1960, thousands of people showed up to see the modest block-wall homes with carports that sold for $8,500 to $11,750, $600 more for air-conditioning.

The 30-year mortgages didn't turn out to be a problem. Webb sold 1,300 houses in the first year. The community was so revolutionary, Time magazine made Webb its "man of the year" in 1962.

Sun City wasn't the first age-restricted community in Arizona. Nearby Youngtown is older. But Webb's model created the new national template for retirement.

Although the houses lack the high-end finishes of newer properties, the original construction was solid, and the original design keeps down remodeling costs, builders said. Large beams carry the roof, so there are no load-bearing walls in the house and no major pipes within them. That makes it easy to open up rooms for Boomers who want an open-concept feel. The ceilings can go up another 2 feet without much problem.

Ed and Patricia White moved from Alabama to Sun City in 1987. Ed was still working full time as a minister at a nearby church. The couple's house was built in a later stage of Sun City and already had been partially renovated.

The couple just had the roof reshingled for the second time. Besides replacing the existing windows to double-pane, those are the only major costs the Whites have incurred to keep up their four-bedroom home.

"We plan to live here until the end and leave the house to our children, and maybe they will want to retire here," Ed said. He and his wife play in Sun City bands and have practices and performances several times a week.

"There's a lot to do in Sun City. We didn't move here for the golf," he said.

Republic reporter Ronald J. Hansen contributed to this article.