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Retirement Communities & Senior Housing |
Retirement Living News March 2005 HEADLINES
(Click
on headline to read story) Archive
of Past Issues
New Retirement Communities Trends in Active Adult Housing Today's active adult home buyers are different from other home buyers and different than their predecessors. They are more affluent and more financially secure. They expect more amenities and services to be part of their housing choices. And unlike past retirees, they are moving to different parts of the country, not just the traditional Sun Belt states that have attracted seniors in the past. The following are several key observations about active adults and their housing choices: * Active Adult Buyers Are More
Affluent and Better Educated * Active Adult Buyers Are No
Longer Just Moving to the Sun Belt Connecticut, for example, is attracting active adults from across the country. They are moving from nearby New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. However, the next three states they are leaving in favor of the Connecticut are traditional Sun Belt states -- Florida, California and Arizona -- followed by Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia. Like Connecticut, each state has its own distinct active adult migration pattern and feeder states. Some of the reasons active buyers move to different states and locations are corporate relocations, a desire to be closer to their adult children or college/alma mater, downsizing or simply to return to their family roots. * Active Adult Buyers Have
Expanded Their Housing Choices They now can move into age-qualified developments built by national and local builders in their own communities -- with housing ranging from villas, condominiums and cluster homes to detached single-family homes. Last May Builder Magazine reported that seven of the top 10 builders in the country -- including the top five -- built active adult communities, several in northern states. Del Webb, the active adult brand for Pulte Homes that first developed its Sun City communities in the Sun Belt, initially branched out into the Frost Belt in the late 1990s when it created Sun City Huntley northwest of Chicago, its first northern mega-community. Today, Del Webb is building active adult communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In addition to finding age-qualified communities closer to home, many active adults are moving into them at an earlier age than their predecessors, often as they turn 55. Previous retirees typically moved into retirement communities when they turned 65 or older. * To Active Adult Buyers,
Amenities Are Everything K. Hovnanian to Offer New Housing Alternative for Seniors K. Hovnanian Homes, the largest homebuilder in New Jersey, has launched a new type of independent living community for people age 60 or better. After conducting a series of focus groups and literature reviews, the company found that there was a strong demand for homes that people could purchase that included services, such as dining, housekeeping, maintenance, transportation, and wellness and fitness. Mark Hodges, vice president of corporate operations, said the company sees an important and untapped market for independent living homes for sale. "People are living longer…and want to control their financial affairs and not give up the money they've worked so hard to earn. Yet if you're an older adult, and you want to take advantage of the amenities and services offered by independent living, the vast majority of communities make you give up the equity you've earned," Hodges said. Responding to that need, the company is starting to build a new type of community called the Concierge Club. Its first community will be in Teaneck, New Jersey (Bergen County). Known as the K. Hovnanian Concierge Club, it will offer one- and two-bedroom homes in a building now undergoing extensive renovation. Residences in the 143-unit independent living community will range in size from 650 square feet to almost 1,575 square feet. www.khovclub.com The common area of the community will include the dining room, a fitness/wellness center, a billiards and card parlor, library and fireplace lounge with high-speed Internet access, an arts and crafts studio, a multipurpose room, and a hair salon. Concierge services, regular housekeeping, activities, and daily scheduled transportation will be available. K. Hovnanian is well known for its "Four Seasons" active adult communities that have been built in seven states. Designed for people age 55 and older, the communities offer a lifestyle that revolves around the clubhouse, pools, tennis courts and other amenities. No other services are offered. The company plans to continue the
Concierge Club senior living model and will build where it sees a
demand. Homes may be in a high rise building, such as in Teaneck, or
be single family or duplex models in varying community configurations. States Try Offering More Choices in Long-Term Care Under an innovative program called "cash and counseling," 15 states will give money to poor elderly and disabled people so they can hire caregivers directly rather than have the state choose who bathes, feeds and dresses them. State Medicaid programs traditionally have selected home-care workers. Cash and counseling offers an alternative by giving consumers a choice about who provides care. With the nation's long-term care costs mounting as Americans live longer, states are experimenting with such programs to encourage greater use of home care instead of more expensive nursing home care, one of the fastest growing costs in the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. Arkansas, Florida and New Jersey tried cash-and-counseling programs as an experiment in the 1990s. Because of the program's success in cutting Medicaid costs, the program spread last October to 11 more states: Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. Illinois and Georgia are expected to join the program this year. In all of those states, the program and participants' allowances rely on grants sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J., a philanthropy devoted exclusively to U.S. health care. A typical cash-and-counseling program recipient gets an allowance of $200 to $1,400 per month; the amount varies by state. Twenty-one states competed for the grants last year. An advisory committee recommended finalists to foundation trustees and the federal government, who jointly selected grant recipients. Proposals were judged on how well they articulated a vision and targeted the elderly, and on whether the governor and legislative leaders supported the program. How states care for the elderly is increasingly important because baby boomers, now between the ages of 40 and 59, represent more than 30 percent of the populations of 17 states. By 2029, according to Census Bureau figures, all 78 million baby boomers will be age 65 or over. With growing numbers of elderly people, more Americans are expected to need long-term care. Allowing consumers to select their own caregivers was cheaper or no more expensive than Medicaid's traditional in-home services based on a review of all states' programs, said Kevin Mahoney, director of the cash-and-counseling national program office. In
Arkansas, the first state to try the program in 1998, about 75 percent
of participants hired family members -- spouses were excluded -- to
provide care. Most others hired friends, neighbors or acquaintances.
The data so far have shown that "people who managed their own
care ended up using hospitals and nursing homes at lower rates than
people who received care from agencies, which produced cost
savings," said Herb Sanderson, director of the Arkansas Division
of Aging and Adult Services. And allowing patients to hire family
members expanded the worker pool, he added. Business on State-Run Web Sites to Purchase Canadian Drugs is Slow Several states that launched Web sites to help put less-expensive Canadian drugs in the hands of low-income and elderly people have failed to do much business. Many of the governors are now being forced to rethink their strategies. New Hampshire, for instance, is debating whether to halt its program and look for other ways to keep drug costs down. A Web site -- www.I-SaveRx.net -- designed to help the 18 million residents in Illinois and Wisconsin buy drugs has processed just over 3,000 prescriptions since October. The unexpected weak response is a result of several factors, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal last month. These include concerns about drug safety, a weaker dollar and consumer confusion. The Food and Drug Administration and President Bush warned consumers earlier about the safety issue, and said it was illegal to import drugs. As for consumer confusion, many have found that while it may be cheaper to buy drugs online, it is not easier. Signing up for the I-SaveRx.net program is a 10-step process that requires patients to mail or fax a series of forms detailing their medical histories. After enrollment, it takes another 20 days to receive the medications. Missouri and Kansas also utilize the I-SaveRx.net program. The Vermont State Legislature has just approved a plan to join the same program. Six counties in New York have set up discount drug card plans that include reimportation as an option. Springfield, Mass., was one of the first cities to add an imported-drug option to its health plan for city employees. Despite the snags that some states have
experienced, efforts to import cheaper drugs won't disappear given the
high cost of medicine in the U.S. Many states are considering other
drug-import initiatives, including seeking new suppliers in Europe,
Australia and New Zealand. This is prompted in part by Canada's Health
Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, to seek cabinet approval of rules that would
bar Canadian doctors from prescribing drugs for patients they haven't
seen.
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