The Baby Boom, Amenity Retirement Migration, and Retirement Communities: Will the Golden Age of Retirement Continue?

Abstract

This article explores social trends that can influence the future development of retirement communities. The leading edge of the baby boom is within a decade of the traditional retirement age. Will this generation experience the same "Golden Age of Retirement" their parents experienced? Will the baby boom make that abrupt withdrawal from the labor force in their early 60s that typified the previous generation of retirees? Changes in Social Security and pension plans along career patterns may produce a phased retirement slightly later in life. Again, changes in pension plans and the age structure of the society may depreciate the post-World War II cohort economic status as they come to retirement. Finally, will the baby boom cohort have similar residential preference as their parents did in retirement? These factors can affect the course of the future development of retirement migration and the traditional retirement community.

Predictable Surprise: The Spatial and Social Morphology of Aging Suburbs in the U.S. Metropolitan Areas

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Population, Migration, Ageing and Health: A Survey

“…Overall, late-age migration appears to have positive effects on the destination's economy, at least in the short run, and some US sunbelt and coastal states have progressively adopted aggressive policies to attract wealthy and relatively young retirees (Haas and Serow, 2002). The positive effects for the host communities are mainly associated with the increases in overall demand and tax payments.…”

Growing older in Malta. Experiences of British retirees

“…As the first decade of the so-called ''baby boomers'' reaches retirement age there has been growing attention to the trends and implications of the choices of this age group (Longino & Bradley 2003;Rogerson & Kim 2005) and in particular whether the existing trend of intra-national retirement migration is set to continue with the baby boomer generation (Haas & Serow 2002).…”