The Housing Choices of Older Adults

By Scott King

In light of the trend for increased homeownership rates among adults 65 and over in the last 20 years, researchers Monica Guillory and George Moschis set out to explore the reasons why some older adults leave their homes for apartments, townhouses, or condominiums. They wanted to discover which groups of older adults were most likely to move to these types of housing, and what the implications of these moves were for marketers of apartments, townhouses, and condominiums.

Using mailed survey data from more than 1,300 adults aged 55+ across the U.S., the researchers examined where older adults presently live, their future living plans, why they made the choice to move, and how they decided upon a particular apartment, townhouse, or condominium.

In answering the above questions, Guillory and Moschis went beyond traditional demographics by utilizing gerontographics, a marketing segmentation model based on cluster analyses of older adults’ needs, lifestyles, and life circumstances. According to this model, mature consumers can be grouped into four types: healthy hermits, ailing outgoers, frail recluses, and healthy indulgers. Their findings include the following:

Nearly 20% of healthy indulgers, but only 13% of healthy hermits and frail recluses, live in apartments, townhouses, or condominiums.

Almost twice as many frail recluses as ailing outgoers (32% vs. 17%) prefer to live in a single-family house in the future. Over 20% of frail recluses who currently live in an apartment, townhouse, or condominium plan to stay there.

80% of healthy indulgers, in comparison with two-thirds of the other groups’ respondents, say a loss of spouse would be their main reason for moving into an apartment, townhouse, or condominium. Frail recluses, compared to other groups, are most likely to move due to unwillingness or inability to do household tasks. Ailing outgoers, compared to other groups, are most likely to move because of the need for health care assistance or access to personal care services.

Over half (57%) of healthy indulgers consider location near a shopping center important when choosing a place to live. For healthy hermits, this figure was only 41%. Ailing outgoers and frail recluses are more likely than the healthier groups to see proximity to medical services as an important factor in choosing an apartment, townhouse, or condominium. Ailing outgoers are more than twice as likely as frail recluses to consider relatives’ opinions important when choosing a housing facility.

Based on their findings, Guillory and Moschis discuss strategies for marketing to older adults who are considering moving into apartments, townhouses, or condominiums. They suggest that healthy indulgers should be targeted, and that housing complexes should be located near shopping centers or in downtown areas. Marketers should emphasize this proximity to shopping and entertainment along with access to different levels of personal and home care services, and do so in a multi-media format.

To obtain this article email Scott King at sking@matherlifeways.com.

Source: Guillory, M. D., & Moschis, G. (2008). Marketing apartments, townhouses, and condominiums to seniors. Seniors Housing & Care Journal, 16, 39-51.

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