WARMINSTER, Pa. (AP) —In her semi-retirement, Pat Kidd enjoys tennis every other day, plus daily trips to the gym and jet-setting around the world.
And while the Medford Leas Lumberton campus in South Jersey is far from her plans to retire to Mexico, Kidd says she’s found the active senior lifestyle she’s always wanted.
“The expectation of my parents’ generation was that you would live to your late 70s, maybe 80s, if you were lucky,” said Kidd, 65, who still works part time. “Now, I expect to be around to 100. It paints a very different picture than my parents’ generation would have seen.”
With more than 76 million American children born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers like Kidd pose a tremendous opportunity for continuing care retirement communities like Medford Leas, which provide a continuum of care that ranges from independent living to nursing care. Yet, attracting this future generation of residents requires a shift in thinking away from the standard amenities, according to those who operate these communities.
“The boomers are the generation of customization,” said Dan Dunne, of Erickson Living, which owns 19 senior living communities throughout the country, including Ann’s Choice in Warminster. “They are the ones that have been living that lifestyle.”
Even though 85 percent of boomers surveyed recently by Realtor.com say they have no intention of leaving their current homes in the next year—and only 7 percent of qualified seniors move into continuing care retirement communities—the coming wave of boomers represents a huge potential to become future residents, community operators say.
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