Why Should Delaware Care?
While Delaware continues to sell itself as a prime destination for retirees, new communities for these senior residents are becoming increasingly popular. But with more seniors in the state, fewer will have to put coffers into the state services.
Retirement communities are booming in Delaware as seniors flock to the state from New York, New Jersey and Maryland.
Since the year 2000, at least 42 age-restricted communities for people 55 years or older have been proposed in all three of the state’s counties. Today, most of the proposals are in various stages of being built, according to the website 55Places.com, and could add more than 12,000 age-restricted homes in the coming years.
Those include a massive 1,800-home community, called Heritage Shores, that is being built near Bridgeville.
In all, it is a retirement community boom that is likely to continue fueling a hot Delaware housing market, because the state regularly ranks as one of the best for retirement.
And, while new retirees bring to Delaware stable incomes that buttress local economies, they also place larger burdens on hospitals, and pay less in property taxes.
Delaware’s baby boomer retirement boom
Delaware’s senior population has exploded in recent years, particularly in Sussex County,
They accounted for more than a quarter of new arrivals in 2023, according to a study from United Van Lines,
Nearly 50,000 of the 124,000 people who moved to Delaware’s southernmost county since 1990 are 65 or older, according to state government records. Furthermore, those records indicate that 25,000 people older than 85 will live in the county by 2050.
Many of those new arrivals are motivated by Delaware’s favorable tax laws.
Seniors older than 60 living are able to exclude up to $12,500 of their retirement income from taxation, according to a report from the Delaware Department of Finance.
The state also has favorable exemptions on seniors’ property taxes. Homeowners who are 65 or older, and who have maintained their residence in Delaware for more than 10 consecutive years, can apply to have their property taxes halved, according to the Delaware Department of Finance.
What this means is less money going back into schools that have already struggled with funding. For example, the Cape Henlopen School District, which serves the coastal Delaware beaches, failed to pass a referendum twice this year.
What do these communities offer?
Many of these 55-and-older communities offer pools, pickleball courts and walking trails.
Similar to master-planned developments taking hold across Delaware, they aim to give residents access to cohesive neighborhoods and garner a sense of community.
According to the National Institute on Aging, walkable and social communities can lower the risk of disease and enhance mental health for people as they age.
Andy Hong, an urban planning professor at the University of Utah, said an advantage of 55-and-older communities is that those homes are designed to be accessible for elderly residents who might struggle with stairs or with traditional bathrooms.
“That’s a huge advantage from an older adult’s point of view, because you don’t have to pay extra to retrofit your housing,” said Hong, the director of the University of Utah’s Healthy Aging and Resilient Places Lab.
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