Continuing care retirement communities in the United States

you're gonna see that those average square feet is much smaller than what we have there, as well as what that cost per square foot looks like.

The challenging part with this, again, there is some newer developments that are going on, but those are included within what's called more of a CCRC, which is a larger retirement community center where it includes assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing facilities, and IL, and probably even some 55 plus active communities.

So these are more standalone AL and IL resorts.

So although we weren't able to get something that was just truly apples to apples, The main point in all of this is just recognizing the fact that our cost per square foot is significantly lower than market rate is.

Well, I think most people want to live in a home.

Although I'm getting more and more requests from people who are looking at, you know, continuing care, CCRCs, continuing care retirement communities.

But it's funny.

I sold one.

Well, what do you think people underestimate about the process? Is it prepping the house for sale? Is it, I know I talked about sorting through the belongings, but, you know, timing transactions, finding the right next home? You know, what's the biggest underestimated part? It's timing.

Yeah.

And I think we get a lot of people who are going, who are looking at the CCRCs, going into our independent living or because they, I mean, they're 100% healthy.

They just need to go somewhere where they get food once a day or three times a day.

And there's several different levels of that.

You have Continuing care retirement communities, I'm sure you've heard of CCRCs.

You've had independent living, assisted living, memory care communities, and they all are prepriced.

Your CCRCs can start off with having a buy-in, which sometimes can be anywhere from $500,000 to $600,000, which is probably your home.

Your loved one's house is what they're having to put up to pay for that, and there's still a monthly fee.

Your independent living is a standalone community, which could run you about $4,000 or $5,000 a month.

Yeah.

Some of those CCRCs can be that way for sure.

Yeah.

The family doesn't get the money.

So I've worked for hospital systems, healthcare, behavioral health, mental health, and other organizations, nonprofits.

And along the way, again, as my family's needs changed, as things changed, I started working part-time at a CCRC.

So they had everything from independent living cottages all the way into long-term care.

And that's when I got introduced to senior care.

But we have to be a little bit more deliberate of thinking about where are they getting that socialization? Are friends and family coming to the home when they're interacting? Are they going to a senior center? Are they going to an adult day program? You know, are they still driving and getting out with friends? You know, obviously it's all different stages of life.

Another thing that we see is this kind of like encompasses the assisted living and nursing home is there are places called CCRCs or continuing retirement communities.

And there are places, again, these are for those who can afford.

You can like buy in and you can go in at independent living.

Concordia has a full page in the magazine, and I'm talking to Julie Davis, who has nearly 30 years of experience in senior living, marketing, and community leadership.

She serves as the marketing director of Concordia Life Plan Community.

Why do you call it Life Plan Community?

It's a great question.

lot of people don't want to have to make decisions later in life when they're in a crisis, or more importantly, they don't want someone else to have to do it for them.

So they come and they make the decisions themselves and move in and they've got a guarantee for life that they'll be cared for even if they outlive their assets.

Wow, Julie, I love that Concordia life plan community.

Where's it located?

So our relationship is really with our clients.

We are working in their busi- best interest always, and work across the whole spectrum, independent living, assisted living, memory care, CCRCs, rental communities, regardless of whether they pay referral fees.

So our relationship is with our clients.

And the way our process works is after the initial consultation, we then do a much more deep dive, we call it a kickoff call, to really understand from not only the older adults, but if there are adult children involved as well.

Mm-hmm

... retirement communities.

CCRCs is what they have been known for, right now rebranded as life plan communities.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So today we're going to talk specifically about CCRCs, which is Continuing Care Retirement Communities.

Okay.

Okay.

That's my job.

A lot of people don't understand that.

I know we've talked a lot about CCRCs.

We can go through all the pros and cons, and you certainly can always give us a call and talk to us about that, right? I'll tell you my opinions.