PERCs, which include a diverse array of assisted living and continuing-care retirement communities designed to accommodate more frail older people, will be occupied by a much smaller percentage of aging baby boomers, Golant said. But PERCs also include upscale active adult retirement communities, which include not only golf courses, tennis courts and swimming pools, but offer fitness centers, investment clubs and summer camps that allow weeklong visits by grandchildren, Golant said. PERCs are increasingly found outside the traditional Sunbelt, in states such as New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Illinois and South Carolina, despite their colder climes, he said.

Not to be confused with PERCs, elder parks dedicated to a wide variety of housing arrangements that cater to everyone from the young elderly, who are healthy and independent, to the very old and frail will sprout up on much larger tracts of land, he said. Like today's aesthetically pleasing office parks or industrial parks, elder parks may have jogging trails or other features that blend with natural settings, Golant said.

"No one objects any more if a subdivision with $400,000 homes is next to an office park because it is pretty and lavishly landscaped," he said. "That will be the same upbeat connotation of these elder parks."

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Contact: Stephen Golant
golant@geog.ufl.edu
352-392-0494
University of Florida
19-Feb-2004