Geographic Mobility Among Residents in Seniors Housing and Care Communities: Evidence from the Residents Financial Survey

Introduction

There is relatively little known about the geographic mobility of the elderly in general. Despite the stereotype of retiring in Florida, recent work has documented very little home equity changes among the elderly (Venti and Wise 2002, 2004; Anderson, French, and Lam 2004; Fisher et al. 2007), and that most home equity changes are precipitated by a major life event, such as a spouse passing or entry into a nursing home. Haverstick and Zhivan (2009) find that the 2-year moving rate for homeowners is less than 10 percent, and that most of those moves are short-distance (less than 20 miles)…