I am not sure I believe in “senior housing”. For starters, there is about a 50-year age range for people we call “Seniors”. It doesn’t seem like a group of people who could have the same housing needs.
A few years ago I took some classes and became “Senior Real Estate Specialist” SRES. I do my best to keep up with housing trends for all age groups. When it comes to “senior” housing news it is all about how institutions that house the elderly can make more money.
Granted all businesses need to make a profit and housing is a business. What I find sad though is that Seniors themselves do not appear to be part of the conversation.
As we age our housing needs may change to the point where we need to move out of current housing and move into whatever kind of housing is more suitable.
There is the belief that all older people want to live near old people and that people over a certain age can not live in housing that has stairs or that older people don’t want to cook or clean but wish to be waited on.
I know a few people who are in their late eighties to mid-nineties who live in housing with stairs and who love to cook. They interact with people of all ages regularly. A relative who is in his late 80s has a social life that revolves around walking with his friends. He does not live in any kind of senior housing.
I know another who will turn 96 this year. He loves having the family over to enjoy a home-cooked meal. He bakes some wonderful pies too. Sometimes he needs a little help but don’t we all? The mother of a childhood friend will turn 99 this year. She LOVES baking and telling stories about her life. She lives in the same house she has lived in for more than 70 years.
Sometimes I sell 55+ housing, which is unusually in the form of small condos. Life in these buildings doesn’t look like what we see in the advertisements.
I’ll just say that senior housing isn’t for everyone who is between 50 and 100 years old. It is possible to age in place.
