senior housing a major care issue

Clearly one of the major issues in the senior care area is senior housing. The growing number of seniors are going to need a growing amount of senior housing, assisted living, and nursing home space. I know I am coming back to the senior housing topic, but the housing crisis in this country makes it even worse.

For many seniors, their major asset is their house, and that is the thing they always assumed that they would leverage to pay for senior care when they needed it. The problem is that this is a very bad time to sell a house so the reserves that they though they had are not there, or not as large. If forced to sell their house to pay for care or to transition to some form of senior housing, they are losing a lot of the value that would (hopefully) return if they could just wait. Even those seniors who want to borrow against the equity in their house are finding that much more difficult and providing much less value.

In terms of resources for senior housing, I did come across this page at the New Hampshire seniors resources project. It provides links to local resources for senior housing. Hopefully this can help people in New Hampshire, though I think they need to add more listings.

One thing that I think seniors will not have to worry about but that was pointed out to me as a funny thing to look at by a friend is this page on world of warcraft addiction, which is funny but not so funny as I know a young couple who seem to be spending a lot of their time playing the game.

It is worth a moment of levity when thinking about the growing senior care problem and the senior housing crisis that is looming.

senior care - senior housing

I know that there have been a lot of posts lately on senior housing, assisted living and such. I've been meaning to jump in on the subject so here goes.

I think that senior housing is likely to become a more and more of an issue as the boomer generation ages. Here is another quick statistic on this issue:
In 2000, 12.8% of the US population were 65 years of age or older. 1 in 8 Americans are over the age of 62. As the "Baby Boomers" reach 62, the impact of those who were born between 1946 and 1964 will create 80 million additional Americans who are 62 years of age or older. The impact is so great that by 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be aged 62 years and older. There will be an increased demand for housing that is designed for seniors.

The scary ting about this is that the senior housing and assisted living that we have now is already not keeping up. This is only going to get worse. It is especially bad since with the economy the way it is, companies are unlikely to build significantly more senior housing or more assisted living facilities. Yes these are growing ares and everyone knows that the senior population is increasing, but companies are clearly very cautious about investing more money, especially in construction. Even if they wanted to, it sounds like they would have a hard time getting financing to build new senior care facilities.

This of course leaves more of the senior care issues to be solved by family. This is where a lot of us are now and it is only going to get worse over time. Imagine a country where one in five households is caring for a senior?

Unfortunately, as my friend points out there is one more step to this problem beyond senior care and senior housing. That is cemetery space. There are over six billion people alive today. If each one needs a cemetery plot 4 feet by 8 feet... do the math.

That is somewhat morbid, but even focusing on the senior care problem, there is plenty to worry about. What about a world where 1 in 5 people lives in senior housing? That leaves a lot of empty houses and depressed real estate prices, and a shortage of senior housing. Maybe our economy will go from everyone working at WalMart to everyone working at an assisted living or senior care facility. Maybe we'll just skip right to the final solution and WalMart will open a series of SeniorMart senior care facilities.. "Always the lowest prices, always the best senior care, all seniors shipped to China where the care givers are paid ten cents a day."

I guess I'm rambling, but I can already see the problems based on the waiting lists we have in my are for space in senior housing or assisted living facilities. Effectively seniors are waiting for someone to die or at least to get sicker so they move to the next level of care and open a spot.

Senior care is just going to be a growing problem.