What Boomers Want

For baby boomers who have come to expect the best, they’re now thinking about making their older years the healthiest. Many have or will design or remodel their existing homes with universal design principals to make aging in them more practical and safe, such as lower countertops, wider entries and hallways, and curbless showers. But there also are new in-home technological advances that will make boomers’ lives easier – and healthier.

Just how big is demand for aging-in-place technology? Huge, and it’s growing.

According to the MetLife Mature Marketing Institute, 91 percent of pre-retirees aged 50 to 65 want to live in their homes in retirement. Aging-in-place technology already is a $2 billion industry, according to Laurie M. Orlov, who writes the “Aging in Place Technology Watch” blog at AgeInPlaceTech.com.

Telehealth devices designed specifically to maintain wellness – weight scales, blood pressure cuffs, and diabetes monitoring devices, for example – are big, as are passive activity monitoring systems. The Intel-GE Care Innovations QuietCare system, for example, detects activity or the lack thereof through motion sensors placed throughout a home, which alerts a call center, if necessary.

Besides health and safety, there’s a financial incentive. Having a home wired and equipped with proper software and products costs an average of $4,000, plus $130 a month for monitoring, says Ric Johnson, chief systems designer for Elite Systems Solutions, an electric home-systems company based in Waynesfield, Ohio. Johnson regularly tackles such work – perhaps, wiring and adding software so an adult child living away from aging parents can keep an eye on the home or be sure the parent took proper medication. Or, the elderly parents can check their own blood pressure and relay the information to a health provider and get a quick response. Making such changes can help the aging homeowner avoid the greater expense of heading to an assisted living facility apartment, which cost $41,000 a year last year while a nursing home was a costlier $85,000 a year in 2011, according to a MetLife survey.

Other experts are joining the bandwagon. Johnson often performs his work in conjunction with contractors, builders or architects like

Tony Crasi, an Akron, Ohio-based architect who often works with Johnson on projects, has earned the Certified Aging-in-Place designation from the National Association of Home Builders, meaning he is specialized in modifying homes for aging in place. Crasi might be responsible for building a first-floor bedroom and bathroom or widening hallways before Johnson installs the systems.

But before choices are made, Orlov urges buyers to do thorough research, particularly with merchandise from new vendors. “Determine what the main physical and mental limitations are that need to be dealt with, so you pick the best products. Search for online information about them and comparable ones, call companies, ask for testimonials, and, if feasible, ask to speak with satisfied customers,” Orlov says.