Elderly and Facing Eviction...and other Sunday reading

The first part of today's Sunday reading has more of a senior citizen theme than a real estate theme. Warning: none of these articles will leave you feeling particularly cheerful. Sorry. The first article, from yesterday's L.A. Times and by Rosemary McClure, is titled Elderly and Facing Eviction.  The title above should link; if not, click here.  Here's a quote: "California's foreclosure crisis has severely impacted some of the most vulnerable tenants in our state — seniors who live in residential-care facilities,...These residents had no warning that they were about to lose their homes, and their families and caretakers were left in a panic to find immediate emergency housing."  My late father was in assisted living and then a board-and-care home as he became progressively more feeble, and I find this article really scary.  It's another example of the social wreckage that foreclosures can bring, and I've wondered how long it would be before the national media began reporting on this element.

The second piece is more senior-related than real-estate related, and is yesterday's Tim Rutten column from the L.A. Times. Its subheading is Ryan’s budget blueprint would push the aged into poverty. Quote:"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has outlined what adoption of this proposal to supplant Medicare with vouchers and private insurance exchanges would mean. The overall cost of healthcare would go up, and retirees' out-of-pocket medical expenses would double — an increase that would push tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink." There was a lot of talk this past week about the new budget plan and its war on women; what about its war on seniors? When did we get like this?

And finally, you'll need to have a strong stomach for the proposed new mortgage rules.  Here's an LAT article from today's edition titled Changes in mortgage finance rules could hurt recovery.  Quote: "...the Center for Responsible Lending...argues that if adopted in its current form, the proposal would make it much tougher for modest-income and minority consumers to afford a first home." IMO, it wouldn't make it tougher, it would kill it.  Hopefully there will be some middle ground in the new regulations.

Senior Care, The Housing Market, and the Law of Unintended Consequences

I've been thinking about the following since I returned from Phoenix. Arizona seems to have senior citizen care down. Lots and lots of independent living places, assisted living places, and senior group homes. Which got me thinking: hasn't the explosive growth in senior housing been largely fueled by the rise in home equity? That's how most seniors are paying for their care-based living arrangements, yes? From the (huge) profit they make when they sell the family home? For example, Belmont in Burbank charges (I think) a minimum of $5,000 a month. A care facility can easily cost much more. So, what happens to our seniors and their living arrangements when home equity takes a dive and they no longer have the ability to pay? I think we are going to see many changes in the senior housing industry, and they won't be good.