In Your Home © -- Remodelors for Aging in Place
Facts & Statistics
According to
research by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), www.aarp.org:
·
Nearly
90 percent of seniors want to stay in their own homes as they age, often
referred to as “aging in place.”
·
Even
if they begin to need day-to-day assistance or ongoing health care during
retirement, most (82 percent) would prefer to stay in their homes. Only a few express a preference for
moving to a facility where care is provided (9 percent) or for moving to a
relative’s home (4 percent).
·
Living
under one’s own rules is a key reason for staying in one’s own
home, with 42 percent of seniors choosing it as one of their top three
considerations.
·
AARP
identified housing features that seniors find are especially important in the
later years as they begin to experience reduced eyesight, poorer balance,
reduced flexibility, etc.:
o
Safety
features such as non-slip floor surfaces (80 percent)
o
Bathroom
aides such as grab bars (79 percent)
o
A
personal alert system that allows people to call for help in emergencies (79
percent)
o
Entrance
without steps (77 percent)
o
Wider
doorways (65 percent)
o
Lever-handled
doorknobs (54 percent)
o
Higher
electrical outlets (46 percent)
o
Lower
electrical switches (38 percent)
Most of these
features do not currently exist in most seniors’ homes.
·
Of
seniors who have made modifications to their homes:
o
70
percent said they did so for safety reasons
o
65
percent wanted to make the home easier to use by all family members
o
60
percent wanted to increase their ability to live independently
o
55
percent wanted to provide flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of family
members
·
Most
pre-retirees expect they will be able to live independently during retirement;
relatively few (14 percent) expect they will need day-to-day assistance or
ongoing health care at any point during their retirement.
·
Thinking
about parents’ getting older is on the minds of most adult children (88
percent) and older parents (75 percent).
·
More
than half of the adult children (54 percent) think their parents will need
their help but less than three in ten (27 percent) older parents agree.
·
Seventy-five
percent of adult children and 69 percent of parents think about the
parents’ ability to live independently as they get older.
From the
National Assocation of Home Builders:
·
Seventy-five
percent of remodelors report an increase in inquiries related to aging in
place.
·
The
NAHB predicts that aging in place remodeling market to be $20-$25 billion. That’s about 10 percent of the
$214 billion home improvement industry.
According to
the MetLife Mature Marketing Institute:
·
Ninety-one
percent of pre-retirees age 50 to 65 responded that they want to live in their
own homes in retirement. Of that
group, 49 percent want to stay in their current homes, and 38 percent want to
move to new homes.
·
Falls
are the leading cause of injury-related visits to the emergency room in the
--
more --
In
Your Home
© -- Remodelors for Aging in Place
Facts
& Statistics – page two
Website:
www.iyhusa.com
In Your Home’s website offers a
low-cost (soon to be free), unique online assessment tool that allows seniors
or their family members to enter information about each senior’s
abilities and home set-up, then immediately receive an assessment of their
aging-in-place needs. To access, go to the website and click on “online assessment
tool” in the left-hand column.
Links: Other helpful
sources for information on aging in place include:
Portland-based
All About Aging network at www.allaboutaging.org
National
Aging in Place Council at www.naipc.org
American
Society on Aging at www.asaging.org
Met
Life Mature Marketing Institute at www.muturemarketinstitute.com
National
Association of Home Builders Certified Aging in Place Specialists at www.nahb.org/caps
National
Office:
Media
contact Debbie Alford,
503/590-6200, [email protected]
###