The Housing Market and Senior Citizens

The overall economy is not something that many people will talk about in the same sentence as senior care. These two topics are often considered to be unrelated, but in reality, they intermingle quite a bit. Take the housing bubble bursting back in 2008. You might not think of this at first, but this had a drastic impact on the senior community because of the fact that the building of many senior care facilities ground to a halt. The senior care sub-sector of the healthcare industry has been growing rapidly, but the 2008 housing crisis slowed down its progress. Finally, almost four years later, that trend is starting to revert back to its previous form.

Lending by banks has also begun to reappear. Since the Baby Boomer generation will desperately be in need of housing in the relatively near future, this is the key to a good outcome. The lending from banks can finance the construction of new senior housing facilities.

It should be acknowledged that the senior housing market has not uniformly shrunk. Many companies have remained healthy and growing, even during the down market we have recently been experiencing. This says a lot about the healthcare industry as a whole, which has been expanding consistently year after year-even during times of recession. The senior housing market has expanded still because of its ties to the healthcare industry.

Many buildings thrived because of their strong ties to their respective communities. This includes small to mid-sized senior care companies that have been able to persuade banks to lend them money. In many instances, buildings are able to be funded by individual investors renting the property out to the senior care companies.

The need for senior care housing is expected to explode over the next twenty years. When it does, these companies will be ready with the cheap buildings they were able to obtain during the housing market crash. Not only have these buildings been bought for a reduced price, there is a lot less competition currently in the housing market, making it much easier to get the most high quality buildings and rental units

Many companies have expanded their housing, but it is still not growing quickly enough to meet the overall demand in many areas. The elderly population is growing quickly and even though many new housing facilities have been constructed, the pace of construction is not necessarily keeping up. It's important that these facilities exist and that they receive the funding from banks and lenders to get them up and going. The larger the population gets, the more these new buildings are needed. With bed shortages at many nursing homes across the country, this need has become very apparent.