The 2021 Silver Survey Finds Older Homeowners May Need Creative Solutions to Realize Their Retirement Lifestyle Dreams

This summer, the Silvernest team started wondering: How do older American homeowners feel about their retirement finances and ability to age in place, 15 months into this new pandemic-framed reality?

Because we love data, we commissioned a survey to find out. The 2021 Silver Survey went out to a group of older homeowners, none of which are current Silvernest members. Armed with pre-2020 research on retirement and aging in place, we wanted to see whether older Americans’ plans and prospects are changing—and, if so, how.

According to multiple studies, the vast majority of Americans want to age in place, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as “[living] in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level.” It’s no surprise this idea is so popular—as a society, we have begun moving away from institutional living and back towards our homes and communities.  

But if I didn’t know the definition of “aging in place” and someone asked me if I wanted to do it, I would probably say no. Honestly, aging in place doesn’t sound that great. The term suffers the same mistreatment as many ideas and catchphrases we use to talk about the latter years of our lives—it’s negative, joyless and lacks nuance.  

So “aging in place” has a branding problem—who cares? I think we all should. Language shapes the way we see the world and even helps us recognize objects, and my suspicion is that we are narrowing and stifling what aging can be aging by the way we describe it.  

We interviewed Jim Firman, President and CEO of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) about Aging Mastery. Watch his interview here.

In the latest installment of our Experts in Aging interview series, we spoke with Dr. Sara Zeff Geber, founder of LifeEncore and an expert on solo aging and retirement transitions. Watch her interview below.