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 Editorials | Issues | March 2007 
Older Seniors Return North
 Haya El Nasser - USA TODAY
| | The wave of boomerang seniors promises to swell as the 79 million baby boomers age and longevity increases. |
Retirees who flocked to Florida and other warm states are making a U-turn, challenging communities in the Northeast and Midwest that already are grappling with the needs of an aging population.
The older retirees returning north are still just a small share of the seniors who have moved to the Sun Belt, but there will be many more as the population ages.
They usually go back when their health weakens, they lose a spouse or their savings dry up, according to experts on aging. The main reason for moving: to be near family.
TRIALS OF GETTING OLDER: Aging Americans 'boomerang'
"People relocate in their 60s when they're in good health and often move to active adult communities," says Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. "When they face either a dramatic illness or the death of a spouse, all of a sudden these active adult communities are away from the support system they have and they're not as attractive as they once were."
Seniors usually return to the place they came from, especially if their children live there, she says.
This wave of boomerang seniors promises to swell as the 79 million baby boomers age (the oldest turn 61 this year) and longevity increases. There are 10.7 million people ages 80 and above. That number is projected to rise to 15.6 million by 2025, the Census says.
These reverse moves aren't made for warm weather and entertainment, says Charles Longino, director of the gerontology program at Wake Forest University, who has studied the movement of seniors over two decades. "We call them 'assistance migrants,' " he says.
His research focuses on moves by the elderly to and from Florida — the state that annually attracts the largest number of retirees — and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The 2000 Census provides the most recent detailed data on migration of people over age 60.
Pittsburgh, for example, "is trading younger elderly for older Floridians," says Peter Morrison, demographer at the RAND Corp. think tank. "Pittsburgh is basically accumulating among its elderly more and more of those who are disabled and need services."
"Communities are just beginning to understand the demographic demands of longevity," says Elise Bolda, head of the Community Partnerships for Older Adults, which provides grants to local groups through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "One of the big fears is that as retirees spend all their resources, will they stay in Southern states or will they come back?" |
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