Developer builds community of ‘right-sized’ houses for over 50s market
LONDON: People age 55-plus are looking to make their home lives simpler but more fulfilling, where they can live on a single level in an open floor plan with easy access to fun features like heated swimming pools and pickleball courts.
That’s what Long Built Homes founder and CEO Bob Long and his wife, Director of Marketing and Customer Relations Christine Long, discovered through extensive research by national experts into what makes a successful 55-plus community.
They’re planning to make that research a reality with The Preserve at Hunters Hill in Dighton, featuring 106 new single-level homes designed by award-winning architects, a clubhouse with multiple amenities in an area designed by landscape architects.
“People in a 55-plus community are ready to ‘right-size’ and get into a home that is comfortable for their lifestyle,” Christine Long said. “They don’t need extra bedrooms, and they’re looking to sell their home they’ve lived in for 15 to 20 years and needs a lot of maintenance, and they want a bedroom on the first floor.”
Long Built Homes bought the community, previously the Settlement at Hunters Hill, off Anderson Drive in the southwest corner of Dighton.
Plans are in the works for a 3,550-square-foot clubhouse, close to the road on which the new homes will be built.
“We have a fitness center going in, a heated outdoor swimming pool. We have plans for two pickleball courts, a shuffleboard court and a bocce court, outdoor cabana seating and a fire pit, and it’s going to be a really nice place,” Christine Long said.
She described the houses they plan to build as being the right size for those 55 and older looking for smaller single-level homes, houses with a finished second story and houses with a second story as an option.
The house blueprints are flexible. She said people who want open space might choose to have a four-season room added onto their home.
“In all of our plans, we have this open concept, and this is something that the 55-plus community wants,” she said. “They want an open concept for the lifestyle. There’s a second bedroom, there’s a den study, there’s a two-car garage, and we are putting decks on all these homes, with covered roofs included.”
Jane O’Connor, an expert in 55-plus lifestyle communities with the National Association of Home Builders, has been the Longs’ consultant since 2020. Under O’Connor’s direction, the Longs designed their homes with national architects.
They describe the homes as low-maintenance with an easy-living home design. They have worked on the drawings for the clubhouse and new homes for several years.
“The beauty of this community — it’s a cool 55 plus community — is that everyone is going to own their own home and their own lot,” she said. “The houses are detached, unlike a lot of other communities.”
Long said the company has built other communities, but not a 55-plus lifestyle community like this.
The single-family homes are on single lots, which Long said helps keep the homeowners’ association fee low and contributes to maintenance on the clubhouse and two gatehouses. Owners maintain their own homes and lawns.
O’Connor said lifestyle communities differ significantly from open-market housing, Long Built Homes’ stock and trade, but said the Longs really did their homework. While Dighton is not a destination location like other communities, she said, homeowners will be offered a vibrant lifestyle.
“We really wanted to make sure that we did everything the way it should be done for the 55-plus buyer,” Long said. “The 55-plus buyers, they don’t have to move, they have to want to move, and they want to be on one floor and be among other people who are in the same life stage.”
Six of the seven lots have already been reserved. A lot next to the model home is the community’s sales center and showroom, where homeowners can choose their own countertops, floor choices and other features.
Long said someone who isn’t yet ready to buy has put their current house up for sale and has put down $1,000 to assure they’ll have a spot — “all completely refundable, because basically they want to have a heads-up on our next release of lots,” Long said.
Long Built Homes will add new homes to the existing development of 34 houses, built to fit in with the neighborhood.
Long said residents have been nothing but welcoming after Long Built Homes let them know their plans.
The Longs started Long Built Homes in New Bedford in 1986. They’ve since built more than 1,400 new homes, with projects in 36 communities. Projects in the last 10 years include The Enclave, The Orchards in Dartmouth, Bridgewater Preserve and Old Field Preserve in Bridgewater, Raynham Preserve and Raynham Preserve East.
