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Wellness Check

Adult Housing Options: At The Heart Of The SuperAging Revolution

Oct 2023 | By David Cravit and Larry Wolf

Do you know about the SuperAging revolution?

It’s the most profound social revolution we will ever see – and housing is one of its key elements.

We’re in the middle of two different models of aging. One has dominated for decades, but is fading. The other will change everything.

The first is DefaultAging. It says that when you turn 65, you retire. And you haven’t got that many years left. The best you can do is try to stay as pain-free as possible as you work your way to the end. Reinvent yourself? Make bold new plans? Look on the coming years as being filled with possibilities? No chance.

The new model is SuperAging. It says when you turn 65, you could easily have 20 or 30 years ahead…maybe even more. (The fastest-growing age group is centenarians). You still have a long future, and it can be dynamic and creative. SuperAging means getting older without getting old!

In our book, SuperAging: Getting Older Without Getting Old, and on our website, SuperAging.info, we examine the key elements of the SuperAging revolution and show how you can incorporate them into your own life.  We call them the 7A’s – Attitude, Awareness, Activity, Accomplishment, Autonomy, Attachment and Avoidance (of certain negatives).

The Autonomy pillar is particularly important.

One of the most important is Autonomy. SuperAgers want to live independently, but this also means they expect their environment to actively foster and promote that independence. From our book: “So widespread and intensive is their demand for more amenities (including the physical landscape) that it has provoked deep strategic thinking in the entire retirement residence industry. SuperAgers will not accept the more institutional look and feel that may have been okay for their parents. They want a more feature-rich, even personalized, experience, and that includes paying more attention not just to the building itself, but to the surrounding territory.”

The emergence of solutions like Adult Lifestyle Communities is no accident. It plays right into the needs and wants of SuperAgers, who are rapidly becoming the biggest and most important influence in the market.


David Cravit and Larry Wolf are co-authors of SUPERAGING: Getting Older Without Getting Old. The book is available in hardcover, digital and audio formats. To find out more, go to superaging.info

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