Regional Spotlight: Senior Homeowners Likely to Find it Difficult to “age-in-place”

RISMEDIA, Nov. 2, 2007-The Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released “Aging in Place in Upstate New York,” the latest issue of the Branch’s Upstate New York Regional Review.

According to author Jane Humphreys, Branch regional analyst, senior homeowners may find it hard to remain in their homes as they grow older, or “age in place,” because of a growing disparity between the features of the houses they own and the housing they need.

The author concludes that demand for housing services and products that enable aging in place will likely create opportunities as well as challenges for both the private and public sectors.

This change in demand is likely to be of particular significance in upstate New York, where the majority of seniors are homeowners living in older, single-family homes that they have owned for a long time.

“The senior share of the population in upstate New York is larger than in most other parts of the country and seniors’ homes are often ill-suited to aging in place,” explains Humphreys. “This suggests that as the population ages, the region will experience a growing demand for supportive services such as health care, transportation and accessible housing, which may pose significant challenges to local governments and community-based organizations but also create new business opportunities.”

For more information, visit www.newyorkfed.org/buffalo