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The senior living industry is in 2025 laser-focused on meeting the wants and needs of the baby boomer generation. But that doesn’t mean operators aren’t already preparing for the residents who come after them.
The generation, known as Gen X, is typically defined as those born between 1965 and 1985. Although they are far too young to be senior living residents in 2025,the first adults in the cohort are turning 60 this year, which was about the age of the oldest baby boomers in the mid-2000s.
As Gen X ages, operators are starting to think about marketing to them – not only as future residents, but as current adult children. And while Gen X is not as big as the boomer generation before it – numbering almost 12 million fewer people — the coming generation is still one that operators must cater to. That fact is already influencing how senior living operators plan for the future, according to Northbridge Companies Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Hastings.
“While Gen Xers are not yet our primary resident demographic, their expectations are shaping the future of senior living,” Hastings told Senior Housing News.
How operators think about Gen X
Senior living operators are encountering members of Gen X typically as their boomer parents consider downsizing and moving into a senior living community. Although a recent Senior Housing survey showed many operators still are not thinking of marketing directly to the generation, some private-pay senior living operators are, including Northbridge, Claiborne Senior Living and Heritage Communities.
Additionally, operators on the lower end of the acuity scale, such as Greystar and its 130-community active adult portfolio, are already thinking about Gen X, and even serving some of them in their communities already.
Senior Housing News conducted a survey to determine how operators are thinking about the generation. Though the survey included responses from only 13 senior living operating companies, almost two-thirds said they had between 6 and 20 communities.
A majority of operators (83.3%) are not currently thinking about marketing for Gen X adults, according to the survey.
At the same time, a total of 83.3% of respondents said today’s senior living communities will not “adequately serve the needs” of Gen X going forward.
Survey respondents said they believe adding new wellness offerings, creating new community designs and building new middle-market and affordable senior housing models will help attract Gen X in the future.
Other priorities in marketing to younger older adults include: creating “new service types and amenities,” followed by preventative or value-based care services.
Respondents called for senior living operators to create “precision health care” offerings to improve care and develop “person-centered approaches for employees similar to what is provided for residents as their expectations are different.”
Active adult already catering to Gen X
While Gen X has yet to arrive in senior living as residents, some are already moving into active adult properties. The active adult sector has grown quickly in recent years thanks to investment activity and development that has spurred growth in the sector.
Charlston, South Carolina-based Greystar already has some experience marketing to active adult residents between the ages of 55 and 62, according to Greystar Marketing Director Jennifer Bellanger.
“In properties that skew younger, Gen X tends to be interested in living in more urban environments and there’s an advantage of making a move to a community of their peers,” Greystar Marketing Director Jennifer Bellanger told Senior Housing News.
Greystar has had success creating communities with age restrictions for new residents along with amenity spaces and programming centered on wellness to spur active adult growth. For example, if a Greystar active adult property is lagging behind its lease-up benchmark, Bellanger said corporate leaders will work with on-site staff in reviewing programming and timing of an events calendar.
“If you’re showing them an activity calendar while they’re still working and events are mid-day, it needs to be flexible and you have to understand what prospects and residents want and shift your lifestyle programming,” Bellanger said.
In selling to Gen X-aged residents for active adult properties, Bellanger said Greystar aims to show younger older adults how the product type can “elevate lifestyle and make things easier.” with access to fitness centers, pools and maintenance-free living.
‘Shifting the narrative’ for Gen X
Private-pay senior living operators on the IL-AL-memory care continuum have also seen an influx of Gen X adults, but so far only in the form of adult children helping their older parents.
Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based Claiborne Senior Living in the last two years took steps to broaden its marketing efforts in a bid to reach Gen X residents given the cohort’s influence in their parents’ senior living decision.
Claiborne sales and marketing teams revamped community websites as “knowledge hubs,” along with running targeted digital advertising campaigns to highlight perks of living in a community.
Selling to Gen X now also gives operators a chance to familiarize them with senior living for when they need those services down the road.
“Knowing that [Gen X adults] are not only influencers of prospective residents, but possible future residents as well as potential team members, has caused us to step back and analyze our brand and messaging to ensure that it resonates for this generation as well,” said Claiborne Senior Living Vice President of Marketing Brooke Saxon-Spencer.
Senior living operators must start “shifting the narrative” around educating Gen X residents about the concept of senior living as “an upgrade, not a downgrade” with services geared towards “freedom, community and wellness,” Saxon-Spencer added.
This shift in marketing mentality is also underway for Burlington, Massachusetts-based Northbridge Companies, with Gen X families valuing “credibility, transparency and direct access to ownership and leadership teams,” for their parents, according to Hastings.
“Our marketing highlights what families tell us matters most: transparency in pricing, high-quality care, and a strong focus on wellness, engagement and purpose,” Hastings told SHN. “We emphasize tailored programs and care designed to support each resident’s unique journey.”
Omaha, Nebraska-based Heritage Communities is paying close attention to the online inquiry behaviors of Gen X adults who are “typically the decision maker for prospective residents,” according to Heritage Communities Chief Marketing Officer Lacy Jungman.
“We’ve paid close attention to her online behaviors in recognizing digital habits and caregiving responsibilities,” Jungman said. “From web design and chat features to pre-roll ads and local search optimization, we have spent a lot of effort ensuring our content is easily accessible.”
A wrinkle to this, Junman said, is that Gen X adult children working with their parents have sometimes passed the baton to their Generation Z children when doing online research. That requires operators to be even more nimble in how they reach younger adults, Jungman said.
“While Facebook remains a key platform, we’ve expanded our presence to Instagram, knowing many Gen Xers adopted it to stay connected with their own kids and grandkids,” Jungman said.
Other ways operators have reached Gen X residents is through new development. Evanston, Illinois-based Mather recently opened its latest life plan community, The Mather, in Tysons, Virginia. The property is filled with 75% of residents who are from the Baby Boomer and Gen X cohorts.
In the last two years, the Mather Institute has led research into the Gen X cohort, aiming to find out just what Gen X adults want in future senior living concepts.
“We set out to go after a younger, more diverse demographic and that was our strategy from both in building design and in marketing,” said Mather Assistant Vice President Brenda Schreiber. “They want an active lifestyle that represents who they are today.”
To separate from competition, Schreiber said senior living operators must continue to “differentiate themselves” in order to reach younger older adults, Schreiber said.
“It must be authentic and real and done in a way that redefines their programming or their offerings,” Schreiber said. “We can’t dismiss what is important to the Gen X audience and I think we will have to really up our game as we go forward.”
