Aging in Place Remains the Strong Preference — Including in Apartments

The preference is consistent and durable: the large majority of older adults say they want to remain in their own homes as they age rather than move to assisted settings. AARP’s recurring research has put the figure around three-quarters and higher for years, and it shows no sign of softening.

What’s changing is the housing that preference applies to. A growing share of older city residents live in apartments — often long-tenured, often the home they raised a family in — and “aging in place” for them means adapting a compact rental or condo rather than a detached house with a garden.

The Caregivers & Aging-in-Place desk sees this as good news for the practically minded. A small home concentrates the risks — bathroom, the night path, thresholds — into a space where a handful of low-cost changes can address most of the exposure. Grab bars, better lighting, and a clear floor go a long way.

The barrier is rarely cost and more often knowing what matters. Families tend to over-focus on dramatic renovations and under-focus on the cheap, invisible fixes that actually prevent falls. The apartment, it turns out, is a manageable problem.