The United States is aging, and it’s aging into rental housing. Roughly 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day, and a growing share of them are choosing to rent rather than own — trading the upkeep, property taxes, and square footage of a long-held home for a lock-and-leave lifestyle with amenities, community, and freedom.
This is the demand engine behind active adult housing: purpose-built rental communities for residents typically 55 and older who are independent, active, and seeking connection rather than care. It is distinct from assisted living or skilled nursing — there’s no clinical component. What residents want is a fitness center, a calendar of social programming, maintenance someone else handles, and neighbors in the same season of life.
For developers, the appeal is the durability of the demand. Active adult renters are demographically driven rather than cyclically driven — the wave is arriving regardless of where interest rates sit — and they tend to stay longer than conventional renters, supporting stable occupancy once a community stabilizes. That resident profile, combined with a national supply base that remains thin relative to the size of the aging population, is why active adult has moved from a niche to one of the more compelling segments in rental housing.
It’s a segment Alder knows well. Our Alders communities are built around exactly this resident — designed not just as apartments, but as places to belong.