On July 26, 2017, A Place for Mom, the nation’s largest senior living referral service, released detailed findings from its Senior Living Preferences Survey. The findings, which are relevant to seniors, their families and friends, developers and urban planners, revealed some surprising trends in senior housing and care.
A Place for Mom found one preference of seniors is to live in walkable neighborhoods, a trend more often ascribed to millennials. Other findings from the survey included:
- Walkability is not just for active seniors. A strong preference for walkability is most common among senior apartment consumers (53 percent), but over a third of independent-living consumers (38 percent) and over a quarter of assisted-living consumers (26 percent) show a strong preference for walkability.
- Walkability is not just for city slickers. Consumers in both urban and rural areas prefer walkable communities. To the extent that differences in preferences exist, walkability is most important to consumers who prefer urban centers. Yet more than half of consumers who prefer suburbs, as well as a third or more of consumers who want to live in a small town or rural area, also strongly prefer walkability.
- Regardless of care needs, the top three most important neighborhood features are low crime rate, close proximity to hospitals, and close proximity to family. Over 90 percent of consumers in each senior housing and care category prefer a neighborhood with low crime; same for proximity to a hospital.
You can read the full press release here: Will 75 Million Baby Boomers’ Desire for Walkability Impact City Planning?
To support the announcement, we connected with a number of A Place for Mom’s community partners to capture their feedback about their senior living residents desires. They were able to corroborate APFM’s findings with insight into occupancy rates and other information. We then reached out to a number of highly relevant national business and industry press to share the news, generate interest, and secure coverage. Our efforts resulted in nine original articles.
Following is a summary of the coverage around the news:
- Seniors want walkability, too, survey says – Curbed, 7/25/2017
- Walkability May Be Key For Future Senior Living Developments – Senior Housing News, 7/26/2107
- Developers: Keep Grandma In Mind – M Report, 7/26/2017
- Walkable Areas Are Getting More Competition – Realtor, 7/26/2017
- Seniors want walkability, too, survey says – Builder, 7/26/2017
- Survey: Older Americans Value Walkable Neighborhoods – Professional Builder, 7/26/2017
- Walkable location a surprising draw for assisted living prospects – McKnight’s Senior Living, 7/26/2017
- What We’re Reading: Walkability to Serve Seniors and Their Communities – National Center for Mobility Management, 7/27/2017
- Not just millennials: Baby boomers want walkable neighborhoods too, study says, – Boston Agent Magazine, 7/28/2017 (the same article is posted on Chicago Agent Magazine)
We want to congratulate A Place for Mom on its research, and are excited to see what it will uncover next. As the largest provider of referral services in North America, it has a wealth of interesting data and the company’s data scientist is continually examining it to discover new trends and to see how community partners can transform the senior living experience. Be sure to check out www.APlaceforMom.com.