Fast-Growing Older Population Opens Opportunities for Senior Housing

Beth Burnham Mace

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Fewer than half (46%) of America’s middle-income seniors will be able to afford the $60,000 average annual costs of seniors housing and out-of-pocket medical costs in 2029, new research conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, shows. However, an additional 5.9 million older adults could afford senior housing if annual costs were cut by $15,000. Also, if average annual costs for seniors housing and care fell by just $10,000 a year, an additional 2.3 million older Americans could also afford it.

“Today’s housing stock simply cannot accommodate the influx of middle-income seniors projected to need senior housing and care within 10 years,” says Beth Burnham Mace, chief economist at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC), which supported the study. “Making seniors housing accessible to more middle-income seniors in the next decade requires innovation by real estate developers, owners, operators and investors to create and deliver affordable, quality options,” she tells GlobeSt.com.