Senior Living in Charleston
on July 5th, 2009 at 4:43 pmThis is an interesting article written by Katy Stech from the Post and Courier about the changing retirement community within the Charleston area.
Senior living
Housing needs shift as the local population grows older
A message to incoming retirees: Come for the golf, stay for the area’s array of senior living options.
South Carolina’s ranks continue to swell with aging residents who want to spend their hard-earned “recreational” retirement years lounging on the area’s beaches, eating at local restaurants and enjoying the area’s thriving cultural scene.
But after those golden years pass, some will have to move from what now serves as a retirement residence into a real retirement home, whether classified as assisted living, a skilled-care nursing home or a dementia-level facility.
That need for medical supervision likely will place a greater burden on South Carolina’s existing retirement-age housing options.
When the time comes, will the state’s senior living facilities be able to handle them all?
“We have never had (such a large age group) come through the pipeline in such a short span of time,” said Pat Mason, whose Columbia research and publication firm, the Center for Carolina Living, shows that Palmetto State-bound retirees are healthier, better educated and wealthier.
Roughly one in four of the nation’s 74 million baby boomers plan to move upon retirement — and probably to a place that won’t require them to pack a snow shovel and ice scraper.
The exact number of retirees who move each year to the Charleston area each year is hard to figure, especially since the recession has slowed silver-haired in-migration, Mason said. It gets more complicated when you factor in employed workers in their 50s who come with plans to work for a spell before eventually retiring in the area.
To view the article in its entirety, click here.
