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| Blueprints: Developer Riley Richardson, president of Richardson Homes (left), goes over plans with a contractor in St. George, Utah. The
city is now the fastest-growing metro area in America. Joanne Ciccarello – staff  Southwest boom hits St. George, Utah |
In Utah, a boom town for retiring boomers
St. George is the fastest-growing metro area in America largely due to an influx of senior citizens.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July 5, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
St. George, Utah - Tom Wheeler is the kind of guy communities across America are fighting over. He's a baby boomer who cashed out of his Washington, D.C., home, moved to St. George, and now dabbles in several home businesses.
Mr. Wheeler points with pride to his neighborhood, where new earth-toned homes spill across the red rock of Snow Canyon like a flash flood, filling up every crag and mesa.
Developments like Entrada, which cater to active seniors and preretirees, have made St. George the fastest-growing metro area in America. Tucked away in southwestern Utah, St. George and the surrounding Washington County reached 126,000 people last year, up 40 percent from 2000.
Large businesses haven't been the driver. Three-quarters of the companies here have fewer than 10 people. These jobs are in construction, restaurants, and retail, which service the influx of seniors, or in some cases, are started by them.
Across the country, the first boomer-aging wave is beginning to hit, with the oldest boomers now entering their 60s. Most are expected to age in place, but some states and locales are working to entice those who will move and bring with them a portion of the boomers' estimated $3 trillion in assets.
"Many boomers are not going to move, but to the extent they do move, college towns, places with a lot of attractive amenities like St. George, and smaller communities might be the place for them," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "There are a lot of places that would like to become those communities."
The marketing campaigns have begun:
• Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas have set up certification programs for retirement cities; those that qualify will get marketing help.
• Alabama, Florida, West Virginia, and Wyoming have websites, guidebooks, and tax breaks to attract seniors.
• Age-restricted developments – particularly 55-plus – are popping up across the country.
The ranks of 55- to 64-year-olds are projected to grow the fastest in the Mountain West, with New Hampshire, Vermont, and Florida also standing out, according to a May analysis of census data by Mr. Frey titled "Mapping the Growth of Older America."
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