What do baby boomers want in a home? Plenty.

Totaling an estimated 78 million, baby boomers constitute more than a quarter of the country’s entire population—and Americans over the age of 50 represent more than 40% of all U.S. households. No doubt, as boomers continue retiring in droves, they’ll be a driving force for builders and developers who know how to accommodate their needs and desires.

Forecasting those needs and desires, however, is no simple business. “One can’t generalize about 78 million people—there are exceptions to everything,” says Matt Thornhill, president of the Boomer Project, a leading authority and consultant on marketing to baby boomers. “And, since not one boomer is yet 65, predicting exactly how all 78 million might behave once they reach traditional retirement age is premature, like asking a 15-year-old how they plan on raising their kids—much too early to tell.”

The residential building industry has undergone considerable change from only a few years ago. The same holds true for remodeling, an industry whose dynamics are highly dependent on the state of affairs in the housing market as well as the economy. At the high end of the remodeling market, the current trends are even more different.

“At the luxury remodeling level, we have seen a dramatic shift in project type,” says Bill Millholland, executive vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Case Design/ Remodeling. “Our company has a local presence in D.C., along with several franchises across the U.S., and as such we are in a position to see the industry across many different markets. This year, the more extravagant projects and product purchases have dropped dramatically. This is especially the case as compared to the 2006-2007 timeframe. People at the higher end are becoming much more careful with how they spend their money.

Whole-house remodeling makes new ground in the marketplace

A lack of available property combined with difficulty finding new home loans is compelling many homeowners to stay put and increase their home equity with a full-scale remodel. While this can give homebuilders new avenues for keeping their power tools humming, it also represents a whole host of different challenges. Regardless, whole-house remodeling is becoming more prevalent in densely populated urban centers, and homebuilders who include it in their list of services have more options for work than those who don’t.

With housing starts plummeting, can high-end designed homes survive?

A recent report by the U.S. Commerce Department revealed that builders cut back at a “faster-than-expected pace” in February of this year, driving construction spending down to its lowest level in eight years.

If that wasn’t bad enough, new figures rolled out from the same agency in June showed that new single-family home production declined 10% in May, following the end of the first-time-homebuyer’s tax credit, which expired in April.

With these gloomy figures —but with the eventual promise of a strong recovery— it’s hard to imagine anyone building houses with cutting-edge designs and high-end, expensive products.

But this is exactly what some builders are doing.

How green brings in the remodeling contracts

Last year, Don Ferrier of Ferrier Custom Homes and Ferrier Builders, the remodeling arm of his company, had his second best year on record in his 32 years of business. He attributes this success to green building and remodeling. Ferrier also received Best Green Home of the Year from the Dallas Builders Best Of awards. There were 52 companies being honored at the awards ceremony for various accomplishments, but between the time the winners were chosen and the time the awards were given out, seven of the evening’s winners had gone out of business. Not one of those seven companies was involved in green building; Ferrier doesn’t think this is a coincidence.

Outdoor living spaces go beyond the lawn

While many builders sweat the walk-through of one of their houses by a potential customer, what they may not realize is that what often makes or breaks the sale is what’s outside of the home. Today’s homebuyers are increasingly infatuated with extending their interior living to the outdoors.

Outdoor living space is not simply a lawn or deck; it’s an outdoor area that’s every bit as comfortable or that supplies all of the amenities of the interior space of the home. “When creating your outdoor sanctuary, you need to use the same design principles detailed for indoor spaces,” said DeAnna Radaj of Bante Design LLC/3E Products and author of Designing the Life of Your Dreams from the Outside In. “You want to look at the outdoor space the same way you would an indoor space.”