The mornings spent shaping wet clay on the wheel of a potter. The afternoons hover in the sky with private pilot colleagues. The evenings groaning live music around a beach cushion.
Thanks to the aging generation of baby boomers, one in five American citizens will soon be over 65 years old.
“The baby boomers exploded the product portfolio during each decade that we existed just because of our critical mass,” Andrew Carle, lecturer on aging and health problems at Georgetown University in Washington, said Andrew Carle.
“I mean, we are the reason why Baskin Robbins found 31 ice cream flavors,” he continued. “So, when it comes to senior life, why were we content for vanilla, chocolate, strawberry?” We needed more flavors. “
These organized lifestyles are often not cheap – in Mirabella, a retirement community at Arizona State University in Temple where the elderly can take courses alongside 20 years, entry fees start at $ 470,000, in addition to the monthly costs that start at $ 5,232. (Do you want the two -bedroom penthouse? It will be $ 8,346 per month, plus entry fees greater than $ 2.5 million.)
At Latitude Margaritaville, a conclave inspired by Jimmy Buffett with two locations in Florida and one in Hilton Head, SC, island style houses at the most popular place in Daytona Beach start at around $ 300,000. (This location, which was the first to open, in 2018, sold its 3,763 single -family houses, villa and cottage in May.)
On the other hand, the median cost of assisted life in the United States is around $ 5,900 per month, according to Genworth Financial, an insurance company.
The interest of baby boomers for these communities reflects their collective wealth, said Larry Samuel, an American cultural historian who wrote on the fundamental values of the generation. The group, born between 1946 and 1964, represents around 20% of the American population and controls more than half of its wealth.
“We don’t all have a lot of money,” said Samuel, 68, adding: “But that could only be done if the generation as a whole had money and was healthy, and was going to live a few more decades.”
Whether you are looking for now, you will be in the coming years or that you would always do old enough to rent a car for yourself, here are options for certain niche communities to consider – or aspire.
In the community
For retirees – in particular baby boomers, which Mr. Carle calls the “most social generation” – their golden years can be the moment to build their life around a central aspect of their identity, linked to sexual orientation, religion or even to an old shared occupation.
Fountaingrove Lodge, a large LGBTQ + community in the Viticultural Country of the County of Sonoma in northern California, offers a range of amenities, including a wine cave, a cinema and living room and spa services on site. For Jewish individuals, Senior Living Signature in Brooklyn has a synagogue on site and organizes daily and Sabbath Minyanim, while Shantiniketan, a community in Tavares, in Florida, with an accent on Indian culture, offers a prayer room, weekly Hindu religious classes and Bollywood cinema evenings.
For those who are rooted in Chinese culture, Aegis Gardens, which has locations in Fremont, California, and Newcastle, Washington, offers traditional music, calligraphy and a menu of Cantonese, Fujian, Beijing and Sichuan dishes such as the Duck of slow Beijing and the Hot Congee.
There is even a community for former letters carriers in Nalcrest, Florida, with a very important rule for those who have survived decades of narrow canine type: no animals.
Creative types
Without the grinding of a 9 to 5, retirement can be an ideal canvas for developing or developing an artistic skill, whether by throwing on a potter wheel or learning to shoot a film.
Burbank Senior Artists Colony, a community for the rental of independent living apartments a few kilometers from some of the biggest Hollywood studios, offers artists (and grass artists) a theater of the performing arts, a clubhouse on the theme of Hollywood, art studios and weekly editorial courses.
A few kilometers west of Noho Senior Arts Colony, where many residents are Hollywood writers and actors, retirees can take a dramatic actor or writing course, Noodle in a visual arts studio on site or participate in a show in a theater of performing arts. Or they can discover the other side of the theater by volunteering to work on the stage team, build and paint landscapes, sew costumes or serve with use.
And further south, the apartments of the colony of long Beach senior arts are perhaps not as close to the hills of Hollywood, but the artistic district of East Village nearby has galleries, shiny wall paintings, independent shops and wine bars – and you are 40 minutes away from the Ocean and the mountain of Santa Monica.
Learner for life
Baby-boomers are one of the most educated generations, with a little more than a third party who obtained a baccalaureate or more, and about 60% after having at least frequented one college. And what they want, said Mr. Carle, is not “to retire in a sleeping community at the top of a mountain”.
“They don’t consider themselves old. They want to be in intergenerational environments,” said Carle.
This explains why baby boomers flock to university retirement communities, a term that Mr. Carle invented in 2005 to describe communities affiliated to a college or university and near or on a campus. Residents can take courses, have access to campus facilities such as laboratories and libraries and attend athletic and efficient artistic events. There are at least 86 across the country, according to Mr. Carle, who built a website to follow them.
Among the most well rated programs in the classification system of Mr. Carle Figures Mirabella on Arizona State University, which offers thousands of classes to audit on four campuses and a full range of continuous care. There is even an artist program in residence in which four students’ music, dance or theater graduates per year have free accommodation in the community in exchange for regular performance.
The other community to win the best score is The Woodlands in Furman in Greenville, SC, which offers an eclectic class range (including “Tricot a ugly Christmas sweater” and “Forever Young: Bob Dylan in the 21st century”) on a sprawling campus of 45 acres.
In Indiana, consult Holy Cross Village, which is nestled among three Catholic campuses: St. Mary’s College, Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame (residents can audit courses aux Trois). In the direction of the east, there is the village of Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania, which comes not only from the “Ivy” reputation of the University, but also from the famous Berkey Creamery ice cream and priority access to tickets for many athletics events on campus.
Zen inner
Retirement also presents many opportunities for reflection, and certain communities are aimed at the desire to dig into you, both physically and spiritually.
The village of Enso, a Zen inspiration community in the wine country of the County of Sonoma in northern California, offers a Zendo – a room for traditional Zen Buddhist meditation – the courses, a tea room and a commemorative grove on a 15 acres campus with more than two miles of paths. Residents can participate in daily meditation, as well as weekly conferences in Dharma, yoga and forest therapy.
Outdoor
You have had your time in a cabin farm, and now it’s time to ride a horse, to plant trees, look at the stars, play pickleball, really anything – as long as it is outside.
For an equine therapy experience of the desert, try the Hacienda de la Rivière, a community centered on horses with seasonal gardens and small orchards in Tucson. Residents can touch, marry, interact with and sometimes ride the weekly sessions.
Not far from Keeneland, one of the most famous Plietracks in the country, residents of the Ashton Grove senior life community in Georgetown, in Kentucky, take care of retired thoroughbreds thanks to a partnership with Old Friends Farm. Residents interact with horses, which are hosted on the property and help daily care.
And if the pop -pop staccato of a pickleball match is music to your ears, the villages near Ocala, Florida – just over an hour from Orlando – has more than 250 courts.
Also: more than 50 golf courses; more than 100 pools; sports such as racquetball and polo shirt, archery; Star sites with telescopes, barbecue competitions; And soon, a climbing wall.
Toy lover
Whether you are an aviation enthusiast or a classic car collector – or both – several communities of all ages meet both the storage and cruise needs of retirees.
The community as the crowd of Spruce Creek, near Daytona Beach, Florida, houses the country’s greatest residential Airpark and a 4,000 -foot track. More than 14 miles of taxis connect directly to the houses, allowing residents to taxi their plane directly from their private hangars to the track.
Originally built by the Navy as a training base for the Second World War, SPRUCE Creek has been a flight community since the 1970s. Pilots have participated in a variety of activities related to aviation, including weekly training flights called “Gaggles” and flights for breakfast or lunch. An annual highlight is the celebration of the toys parade in December, when planes, motorcycle, car, golf cart and other toy owners are competing for a trophy.
Further west, Lake Weir Presert in a small community in the center of Florida called Ocklawaha is aimed at a lifestyle built around a love for wheels. The community of 300 houses likes to access huge garages designed to house boats of boats and cars (a majority of residents have at least one motorhome, a classic car, a boat or a motorcycle-or perhaps one of each).
Festive animal
For those who just want to have fun in Florida – preferably with a margarita in hand and a “cheeseburger in paradise” energning – the three latitude locations Margaritaville, a community by the sea “55 and better” inspired by Jimmy Buffett – deserve a glance.
Latitude Margaritaville peils its atmosphere as a back-back and “no worries”, so get ready to spend your afternoons to make friends while you lift you in the Florida sun in your floats (it’s like kindergarten!). Also offered: a lagoon style swimming pool, Tiki huts, a pottery studio and a wooden shop and a “barkaritaville” dog park.
When you have finished lounging, there are also live entertainment under a ralling group shell in each community, as well as a jumbo screen for live concerts and films, short -term and enlightened shorts, natural trails and a pet spa.
And, on the site of Daytona Beach, if you want a road trip, you can take the shuttle for 20 minutes to a private beach club.
