In an interview, National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) trade group founder Robert Kramer details what he sees coming for retirees hitting the market.
Primarily, Kramer foresees Baby Boomers' entry into senior housing as transformative, “We’re entering a time of disruptive innovation. The basic business model and system will be radically disrupted,” telling Next Avenue that Boomers will also change the language around senior housing. Rather than an ethos of disengagement, Kramer says Boomers view their golden years as, "What do I want to do next?” He also anticipates 40 to 50 percent of those living in retirement communities in the future will not actually be retired, but "transitioning" into their "second or third careers."
Boomers believe the elder years should be a time of the 4 E’s: engagement, enrichment, experience and enjoyment. “It’s the purposeful years,” says Kramer. “Boomers won’t want to be in an age ghetto.” That’s a nice segue to Kramer’s first prediction about the future of retirement living: It’ll be intergenerational. The silos of segregated retirement communities will come down, Kramer believes. It’s not that he expects the young and the old to live on the same floor or even in the same building, by and large, though.