Multi-Housing News, a respected industry publication, recently sought out Cambridge President Jeffrey Davis for comment for one of a series of MHN articles called Senior Housing Outlook. Davis addressed several aspects of the current state of senior housing as well as offering some predictions for the future of senior living and healthcare.
Multi-Housing News has been around since 1966, first as a print publication. Like many other magazines in the Internet era, it went to a digitally based publication in 2012. Multi-Housing News is a trusted source of senior housing and healthcare news and information for developers, owners, operators, and industry financial stakeholders. Davis’ interview with Multi-Housing News was just one of a handful he has given to various senior living industry publications over the years.
In the interview, Davis discussed what he believes are the most significant challenges for senior living operators going into the 2020s. He identified affordability as being the greatest one. “The retiring Baby Boomers are likely the generation that has saved the least amount of money to address their needs in the future,” Davis told MHN, surmising that perhaps up to 95 percent of Baby Boomers have inadequate or no savings to sustain themselves through the rest of their lives, let alone address the significant healthcare challenges that sometimes arise as a person ages.
Those who have managed to squirrel away some savings have some options when it comes to housing styles. Davis predicts that there will be no shortage of developers who will be willing to “move in new directions” as far as types of housing, such as diverse on-site amenities, chef-prepared cuisine, and multiple on-site restaurants. However, ultimately, “Senior housing needs affordability and ways for operators to operate their facilities within the constraints of their current environment. As much as this sounds simple, these basic tenets will be harder and harder to satisfy moving forward unless the government has a bigger commitment towards creating affordability and not changing the rules of the game so frequently, so that committed operators can do their job and take advantage of different inducements the government or HUD may have.” Davis conjectured.
Davis also weighed in with his thoughts on what the best US markets are for senior housing. He stated, that, in general, “The best-performing markets are those that have different barriers to entry, either imposed by the state or local government body, or the location, or by the state.” He expounded on his point by naming some specifics. “Certain markets that come to mind include Manhattan, West Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, as well as a variety of second-tier/rural markets that have not seen a lot of growth but have strong demographics. I would also add to the list other rural markets that, though their population looks light, it has been a saving population, such as certain farm communities.”
In his interview, Davis also rendered his opinion on the availability of capital to developers, how the 2019 government shutdown, the largest in US history, affected HUD borrowers and the evolution of the demand for senior housing as the peak of the Silver Tsunami gets closer. Viewers can read the full, original article, Senior Housing Outlook: Critical Aspects, Impending Challenges by journalist Laura Calugar at https://www.multihousingnews.com/post/senior-housing-outlook-critical-aspects-impending-challenges/.
