In the United States, after more than 50 years of development since the 1960s, retirement housing has formed a complete industrial chain. From independent living after retirement to professional care after disability and dementia, various retirement institutions are sufficient to meet the needs of all stages of old age and all levels of care.
Retirement villages are smaller than new towns. They are to set aside land in existing communities to build elderly apartments and make use of existing medical and fitness resources in the community.
Laguna Woods may be the largest and most diverse retirement village in the world to date. Laguna Woods is a city in Orange County, California, USA. It was established on March 24, 1999 and covers an area of approximately 3.12 square miles. For 50 years, Laguna Woods has been the first choice for independent living communities in Southern California for people aged 55 and above. This is the real leisure world in the United States. Currently, 80% of it is residential and 20% is commercial. Surrounding the community are shopping malls, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes.
- Suitable living environment
Florida is the southernmost state in the continental United States. It has a warm and humid climate, which is very suitable for the elderly to live, so it has attracted a large number of retirement community projects to be built here.
- Operation and management mechanism adapted to local conditions
The village group covers three counties in central Florida - Sumter, Lake and Marion, of which Sumter County accounts for the majority. However, the local public services of the village group are not provided by the governments of these three counties, but by more than a dozen "Community Development District" (CDD: Community Development District) local governments [local governments established in accordance with Florida's Uniform Community Development District Act of 1980 to help community construction and development], providing public services including public places, local roads, water supply and drainage and other infrastructure, security (non-police affairs), fire protection, sanitation, etc. All affairs of the CDD are decided by a 5-member board of directors, which is elected by community residents. The cost of public services provided by the CDD is paid by collecting real estate taxes and municipal utility fees from community residents, and the money is collected and paid by the village development company.
- Abundant public facilities
The most important feature is the provision of a large number of leisure and entertainment facilities, which residents can use without restrictions after paying a certain monthly fee. Since the "Sun City", the "free" golf course is a small-scale golf course in the village, but there are many golf courses, which are evenly distributed throughout the community, which not only meets the requirements of all residents to be close to the golf course, but also provides good scenery.
In addition, the village is densely equipped with public entertainment centers at different levels, such as community level, group level and neighborhood level, a large number of outdoor activity venues of different types, as well as 13 parks with picnic facilities, 3 pet parks and 1 children's park.
- Friendly road design
Unlike general communities, pure separation of people and vehicles and internal traffic organization based on walking are not suitable for large retirement communities. On the contrary, a highly accessible environment based on low-speed motor transportation may be more in line with the travel needs of the elderly.
Residents of the village generally use golf carts as a means of transportation. This small car uses oil/electric hybrid power and can be driven without a driver's license. It can reach any corner of the community "door to door", including commercial centers, public entertainment centers, medical facilities, etc.
At the same time, there are also sightseeing buses running in the village community, mainly serving visitors. The internal roads of the village do not exclude ordinary motor vehicles, but the speed must be controlled below 10 miles per hour (16km/h).
Although it is a mixed traffic of people and vehicles, the road design is still pedestrian-friendly. The two-way 2-lane cross section allows pedestrians to cross the street easily, and there are wide sidewalks on both sides. On weekdays, the Sumter County Bus System provides bus services for the village, but based on American tradition, the external transportation of the village still mainly relies on private cars. There are many interstate highways and county roads passing through the community to neighboring cities.
- The social characteristics of residents are consistent
Strict restrictions on the age of residents
The village stipulates that only people over 55 years old can live in the community for a long time, and visitors under the age of 19 cannot live in the community for more than 1 month each year. The elderly welcome their children and grandchildren to visit and stay for a while, but then hope that they will leave and leave themselves a quiet space. This is proved by the continued success of such projects in the US retirement housing market.
- Social class and race consistency
The consistency of social class and race in the village is also very prominent. In 2014, 98.2% of the residents in the villages were white; the average annual household income was $55,708, and only 4.7% of the population lived in poverty; 94.9% of the population had a high school education or above, and 35.7% had a college education or above. Similar situations also occurred in other representative AARC projects. Although many communities have been trying to attract people of different classes and skin colors, middle-class whites are still the main customer group for such projects. In fact, from the perspective of public economics, the richer the variety and higher the quality of quasi-public products provided in the community, the higher the social class consistency required of residents, because everyone must be willing to buy high-quality and high-priced public services. Therefore, the membership-based public facility service system fundamentally determines the highly consistent social characteristics of community residents.
- Medical care services
Medical care services are geographically concentrated and have abundant medical resources, making it convenient for patients to obtain diagnosis and treatment and nursing services.
High level of specialization
Hospitals and nursing institutions have gathered a large number of professional doctors, nurses and medical technicians, and can provide high-quality and professional medical care services.
Advanced facilities
Medical institutions generally have advanced medical equipment and technology to meet the diagnosis and treatment needs of complex diseases.
Diversified services
Nursing services cover a wide range, including outpatient, inpatient, home care, chronic disease management and other modes, which can meet the needs of different patients.
- Advantages of the Quncun real estate project
The prices of the current houses for sale in Quncun are mostly between 200,000 and 300,000 US dollars [the houses sold in Quncun include both new and second-hand houses, the cheapest second-hand houses are priced at 105,000 US dollars, and a few designer-designed houses are priced at 1 million US dollars], and the average house price from 2010 to 2014 was 224,200 US dollars.
The housing prices in Quncun are comparable to those in some larger cities in central Florida (such as Orlando, Gainesville, etc.), but Quncun has advantages that ordinary residential real estate projects do not have: the elderly who buy Quncun houses can only pay 5% to 10% of the house price as a down payment, and the rest can apply for a housing mortgage loan, and the loan term can be up to 30 years, and there is no upper limit on the age of the applicant.
If the mortgage loan is not calculated, the average monthly housing cost for the owner (including real estate taxes, municipal utility fees, leisure facilities membership fees, etc.) is $474; including the mortgage loan, it is $1,251. This is a relatively affordable housing cost for the elderly in the middle class of the United States.
- Perfect exit mechanism
The village also provides a fairly perfect exit mechanism. When the elderly die, their houses and land can be inherited, but unless the heir is over 55 years old, they cannot live in the village for a long time. The development company provides second-hand housing rental and sales agency services in the community, and the owner can entrust the company to rent or sell the house.
- Mixed land use
Mixed land use in line with the development concept of new urbanism is a crucial point in community planning. Through mixed land use planning and highly accessible transportation networks, the residential areas in the community are closely linked to various public facilities, providing a compact urban space that is conducive to social interaction. In addition, good urban designs such as continuous street interfaces, humanized street scales, rich public spaces, and exquisite outdoor landscapes also make the village more in line with the aesthetic needs and appreciation standards of the American middle class.
