By: John Milford | Posted: September 21, 2015 | Updated: April 5, 2023
There are a variety of retirement living “business model” options for a person living independently at home to consider when weighing whether to stay or move, as described in this recent article (Retirement Living Options).
They vary from staying put and joining a village for companionship and support services to purchasing a place and moving into a setting that allows for preservation of your home equity.
Talk on Retirement Living Options to the Sausalito Village
Below is a video of a talk given by John Milford to the Sausalito Village in 2017. Further down the page is a comparison matrix to help evaluate which retirement living option is the right one for you.
Retirement Living Comparison Matrix
As an illustration of how to review the options and the frequently asked questions about each, two of our Explorers (John Milford and Candiece Milford) have put together this comparison matrix, using San Francisco Bay Area Housing examples. Candiece works at The Sequoias San Francisco and so some of the examples in the table are specific to that retirement community.
In the table below, the types of retirement living “business model” are listed across the top as either Equity; Equity co-housing; Rental (independent); Rental (assisted living) and Entry fee / Non-equity. For more about these terms see the accompanying article mentioned above.
NOTE: If you want your own copy to enlarge or print, you can download a PDF version at the bottom of the page.
Compare Different Senior Living Alternatives
Page 1:
Page 2:
Page 3:
Additional Senior Living Comparison Resources, from John Milford and Candiece Milford
Below are some additional resources from John and Candiece Milford:
A list of the top ten questions to ask when interviewing a retirement community to decide if you want to live there.
A list of Californian Non-profit CCRC’s.
A list of Californian For-profit CCRC’s
Download the table above (housing comparisons) as a PDF
*Disclosure: The research and opinions in this article are those of the author, and may or may not reflect the official views of Tech-enhanced Life.
If you use the links on this website when you buy products we write about, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate or other affiliate program participant. This does not affect the price you pay. We use the (modest) income to help fund our research.
In some cases, when we evaluate products and services, we ask the vendor to loan us the products we review (so we don’t need to buy them). Beyond the above, Tech-enhanced Life has no financial interest in any products or services discussed here, and this article is not sponsored by the vendor or any third party. See How we Fund our Work.
John has deep expertise in the aging services industry, and thirty-four years of management experience and service organization development skills. He opened and served as Executive Director of the San Francisco Towers (CCRC) for over fifteen years after a career in hospital and health care administration. John remains active as the principal of Heritage Consulting for Retirement Living, supports non-profit work for seniors as Board Chair at the San Francisco Senior Center and Board Secretary at San Francisco Village, and has served as Chair of the Grownups Forum at the Commonwealth Club of California for over thirteen years.
2.10.2016_finalretirement_living_comparison_2.pdf
