Senior living is something that is receiving a lot more attention than ever before. It’s because more and more seniors are choosing to make the move to senior living. Since the overall population of the country is aging, it’s not surprising that more people are interested in senior specific options for housing.
There’s a wide variety of different types of housing that can accommodate the senior lifestyle. In addition, the costs of senior living are often staying the same or retreating lower. With the abundance of senior facilities being opened, there’s a slight edge in supply over demand, which inevitably brings down the costs associated with senior housing. If your golden years are here, or approaching, then how you want to live the rest of your life is an important subject and not to be taken for granted.
Senior Housing Options
Senior housing continues to be refined. There’s several different versions of senior living that people look into. Some of them include:
- Independent Living Communities - These are simply a collection of homes, condos or apartments grouped together into a community aimed at seniors. Nearby facilities are perfect for seniors and this option is perfect for any senior who wants to keep their independence.
- Assisted Living - Assisted living can come in many forms, ranging from minimal support to quite a bit of support with daily activities. Assistance comes in the form of medical help and daily chore help according to what is required. It’s typically moderate levels of assistance.
- Nursing Homes - A nursing home is a senior home in which heavy care is provided. Many residents can’t live without the care. Rooms are typically smaller than elsewhere.
- Memory Care Homes - A Memory care home is a nursing home that is specifically designed for people who suffer from memory based problems like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Senior Living Costs
Senior living is not inexpensive, but the prices continue to decrease. For prices that don’t drop, it seems that more and more services are being offered at the right price. Prices can range from around $2,000 to $7,500 per month depending on whether you’re renting private rooms, semi-private rooms or entire homes. Other factors for cost include the amount of services being provided.
There’s one factor to senior living that many people may be forgetting. The vast majority of health insurance plans won’t allow for senior living to be covered. However, there are often supplemental insurance plans (or really good ones) which can help subsidize the costs, thus lowering them for the consumer. Essentially, it means that planning ahead can provide better senior housing later.
Residences vs. Demand
One of the biggest reasons that housing options are becoming much cheaper for seniors is that companies are preparing for the future. Currently there’s approximately a million seniors living in the various assisted living residences across the country. This is certainly an ample number.
However, 1 million people pales in comparison to future estimates. It’s thought that just by 2035, there’s going to be twice that amount of people in assisted living. The companies offering assisted living know this and they have been working on opening up additional facilities. There’s nothing worse than being slow to react to an increased demand for a company. You can really miss out. However, this means that there’s an increase in residences available, without the corresponding increase in tenants quite yet. This means competition among senior living facilities, which in turn means lowered prices to residents.
