Published 4th September 2014
A new report entitled Housing America's older Adults: Meeting the needs of an ageing population has been released by the Joint Centre for Housing Studies of Harvard university. The project was funded by the AARP. It reveals that older homeowners want to age in place but aren't focused on accessibility. New survey data based on the Demand Institute's American Communities and United States Housing research program. Abbe Will a Research Analyst at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard university blogged that the Demand Institue's data clearly illustrates the discrepancy between "homeowner attitudes toward aging in place and their accessibility needs, including major motivations for upcoming remodeling projects. A preliminary analysis of the Demand Institute’s consumer housing survey data indicates that older homeowners do not consider aging in place and home accessibility as going hand in hand. Although the vast majority of homeowners age 50 and over report that being able stay in their home as they age is very important (88 percent ranked this statement 8, 9, or 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is extremely important), less than 35 percent of older owners place the same level of importance on having a home that is accessible to persons with special health needs or disabilities.
Indeed, 7 out of 10 older homeowners do not have any plans to move in the future, meaning they intend to age in place. But even among those who do plan to move at some time in their later years, only 36 percent cite accessibility as an important characteristic of their next home. This is a meaningful statistic given that the 2011 American Housing Survey estimates that almost 30 percent of older homeowners have a disability or significant difficulties doing typical activities around the home without assistance, which would indicate some need for home accessibility features. The share of homeowners with disability or impairments rises dramatically with age to 46.4 percent of homeowners age 70 or older.
Unfortunately, older homeowners are largely not focused on accessibility needs as part of aging in place. While 45 percent of older owners report being somewhat or very likely to do a major remodeling project (costing $2,000 or more) on their primary home in the next three years, few of them are likely to list “accommodating health needs” or “making the home easier to live in as they age” as major reasons for their next renovations. Only 8.0 percent of homeowners age 50 and over who plan to do a major remodeling project in the next three years plan to do so to accommodate the health needs of someone in the household, and only 15.3 percent want to renovate specifically to make their home easier to live in as they age. Even those older owners reporting that accessibility is important to them are not much more likely to cite accessibility (16.0 percent) and aging in place (23.4 percent) as major reasons for upcoming remodels."
The key message being that the United States housing construction industry will need to bridge a significant gap between owners wanting to age in place and being able to do so safely with appropriate accessibility features. I believe the story in Australia is no different.
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