Who wants to know? Older adults’ interest in housing information

ABSTRACT

Nearly 80% of adults aged 45+ reported wanting to remain in their homes and communities as they age and stay at home even when they experience physical and cognitive declines. As the population of adults age 65+ increases, the market of mature consumers will also increase placing expectations and demands on industries including healthcare, housing, and service. Decision makers in these increasingly competitive arenas will need to position their missions and goals to align with these changing needs. The goal of this study is to identify characteristics of adults aged 45+ who are interested in community-based housing options including home repair/modification programs, reverse mortgage options, retirement communities, and assisted living facilities. Data were collected through a nationwide telephone survey to identify the current and future information needs of adults aged 45+. Andersen’s behavioral model was used as a framework for selecting variables to describe housing information seekers. Using classification and regression tree analysis with the chi-squared automatic interaction detector algorithm to overcome issues of multicollinearity within the data, findings indicated that perception of health interference in daily living, age, gender, and living arrangement was the significant indicators for interest in obtaining housing information.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging in place
• home repair/modification
• reverse mortgage
• assisted living
• retirement community

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Notes on contributors

Eunju Hwang

Eunju Hwang is an Assistant Professor of Residential Environments and Design at Virginia Tech.

Nancy Brossoie

Nancy Brossoie is a Senior Research Associate in Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech.