Family is a big draw in attracting elderly to an area or keeping them there.
"Some families will move residents in from out of town," said Sharon Kruskamp, executive director of the Heartlands Retirement Community in Howard County.
Others stay precisely because of family. That was the case for James Hackman, 79, who has lived in the Heartlands for a little over a year. "We wanted to stay in this area primarily because we have three children here and six grand-children and they're all in the area," said Hackman.
Hackman had lived in Glen Burnie for more than 40 years and said the ample senior housing in the area gave him plenty of choice. He toured senior housing in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll and Howard counties before settling down, he said.
Maryland developers are trying to seize the 55-plus housing market, hoping to prevent seniors from migrating to more traditional retirement areas, such as Florida and North Carolina.
Annapolis-based Ribera Development LLC is awaiting final approval for a planned 2,000-home, 55-plus community in Crofton.
It's the company's first venture into 55-plus housing. Eric DeVito, vice president, said the idea came to them when his partner toured a similar development in New Jersey and found that residents were happy to be closer to their families.
"There is a demand for it here," he said. "There are folks who don't want to move to Florida. They want the retirement lifestyle and all the amenities, but they want the kids to be down the street or close enough that they can see them quite often."
But Maryland lags behind other areas, said Rosenthal, of the state Department of Aging.
"Our housing stock really didn't anticipate the needs of people who would age in place," she said. "Most of our homes have physical barriers in them. For people who want to be able to age in place, they have to deal with modifications to their homes."
Some demographers say that although states like Maryland are seeing increases in their aging populations, there is still a shift from the more expensive states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to the south and west.
"The population is still increasing at a very fast pace overall," said Mark Mather, a demographer with the Washington, D.C.-based Population Reference Bureau.
"But Maryland was actually one of the states where we saw baby boomers moving out, and they seemed attracted to Florida and the Carolinas and the mountain West states. ... They tend to favor places that are less crowded, less expensive and have more amenities."
Some, like Elizabeth Mohan, 61, are determined to stay in Maryland.
Mohan, of Pikesville, works with older patients and residents at Levindale Geriatrics Center and Specialty Hospital in Northwest Baltimore. She said she has found the best place to grow old - here in Maryland.
Mohan moved to the Baltimore area in 1982 from Jamaica after trying New York and Florida, both of which she didn't like.
"I know that I'm getting older, and I think what is going to happen when I get to their age," Mohan said referring to her patients. "But I think this is a good place for us.
"It's a clean state, everything is around you. ... I think I'll retire here."
sumathi.reddy@baltsun.com
Sun reporter John Fritze contributed to this article.
