A recent New York Times story showed millions of older adults are sitting on vacant single-family homes and keeping them off market. Active adult operators aren’t overly worried.
The story cited data from Flock Homes showing that tax bills triggered by sales can “far exceed” the cost someone would incur leaving a residence unoccupied. Tax liability for sellers age 65 and older can add up to more than $100,000 while the annual cost to maintain a “zombie home” is as low as $10,000 annually. That disparity is causing some owners to sit on their properties instead of selling them.
For example, in Los Angeles, where more than one-third of owners are 65 or older, a home sale might carry a tax bill that totals 19 years of maintaining the property while empty. The same is true for other cities including Salt Lake City, totaling 16 years, Nashville, totaling 11 years and Seattle at 10 years.
Many senior living residents pay for their stay in senior living by selling their home and living off of the proceeds. This is especially true for active adult residents, who often are downsizing from a single-family home to a more modest-sized unit, out of a desire to move rather than a need.
The number of existing home sales increased 0.2% in April compared to March, and remained flat compared to April 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors. Regionally, sales in the Northeast are down 8.2% year over year and the Midwest saw a slight decrease of 1%. Home prices climbed to an average of $417,700 in April, an increase from the median price of $414,300 seen in 2025, and there are nearly 1.5 million unsold homes, a 5.8% increase from March and 1.4% increase year-over-year. Those numbers indicate the housing market is in a current period of stagnation, with sales of previously occupied homes remaining around 4.1 million, the same amount seen in 2025, a 30-year low according to the Associated Press.
NIC MAP data showed the active adult sector shed some occupancy in the first quarter of this year, but that amounted to growing pains as the sector added new units. Several operators who talked to Senior Housing News, including leaders of Amira Senior Living, Headwaters Group and Avenue, said they are gaining occupancy and seeing strong demand for their services in 2026. As such, they aren’t very worried about an overly negative impact of home prices on their growing operations, but they are keeping an eye on the trends.
‘Demand remains strong’
In the first quarter of 2026, the average active adult occupancy rate dipped by 70 basis points compared to the previous quarter to 91.2% across 125 markets, according to NIC MAP data. In markets with the lowest levels, such as Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona, occupancy rates averaged around 85%.
Active adult operators that spoke with Senior Housing News have reported strong demand. For example, Amira Senior Living, an operator with 15 communities, two in pre-lease; currently carries a 98% average occupancy rate, which is consistent with its 2025 average, according to Executive Vice President Karla Carlson.
“Occupancy of our communities in lease-up isn’t growing at the velocity that we’ve seen in the past, but we are still outperforming underwriting lease-up timing which indicates that demand remains strong,” Carlson told Senior Housing News.
Amira Senior Living’s portfolio is primarily located in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area, which is “very competitive,” according to Redfin, with an average time to sell a home at 30 days. The operator begins pre-leasing 16 to 18 months before completing a new community in order to give prospective residents time to sell their homes.
“Many of our residents have owned their homes for most of their lives, some with their mortgage paid off and they will want to access that equity at some point,” Carlson said. “We anticipate that, for many, the benefits of freeing up that equity to fund a portion of their lifestyle, while also having flexibility to reinvest much of it, will outweigh any consequences, such as price adjustments, of a softening market.”
Another such operator is Headwaters Group, the company that former Anthology Senior Living President Ben Burke launched in 2022 that today operates five communities. Lease-ups are continuing to outpace expectations and the company’s stabilized portfolio has maintained “strong occupancies,” according to Burke, who is the company’s managing partner. Burke said that demand is strong even in certain markets like Salt Lake City despite the often-unaffordable costs of homes there.
“Regardless of their home value, we’re seeing people who are going through life changing events … that are triggering moves,” Burke said. “Look at the stabilized occupancies. Look at the lease-up over the last four years, while home values and home sales have been depressed … should that dynamic improve over where it’s been, then we view that as upside.”
As many as two-thirds of Headwaters Group’s prospects successfully sell their homes before moving into one of the operator’s communities, Burke added.
Avenue operates one Viva Bene community with one on the way in Carmel, Indiana. Almost three-fourths of the company’s residents are renewing their stay in the community for another year, which is within expectations. But lead volume has slowed this year, which Avenue Principal and Co-Founder Laurie Schultz said is underwhelming in the markets where Avenue operates communities. The company’s target demographic typically has a net worth tied to home equity and are sensitive to interest rate fluctuations, she said.
“We believe the current reduction in leads is largely due to prospects hesitating to list their homes amidst interest rate volatility,” Schultz told SHN.
Home values, wealth among boomers still supports affordability
A melange of events, from rising prices related to the Iran War to rising gas prices, is putting more pressure on consumer sentiment. While on paper the fundamentals of the housing market look good, the “vibes” are another story. According to Realtor.com, both buyers and sellers are “balking” at some new deals.
But despite fears of “zombie homes” and interest rate or price volatility in certain markets, the profile for senior living and by extension active adult operators still looks bright as it relates to household wealth, according to the most recent senior housing outlook from Green Street, released in January.
While the senior living industry may struggle to deepen penetration rates without expanding senior living to more people via middle-market price points, the data showed its traditionally core customers still have the wealth and assets to afford a move into a senior living community, including an active adult property.
The median senior’s household net worth was about $335,000 in the beginning of 2026, totaling about six years of rates at today’s national averages. According to the Green Street report, “recent stock market gains and, to a lesser extent home price appreciation, continue to support affordability.”
“Senior incomes – which typically consist of Social Security payments, investment income, pensions, and other retirement vehicles – have outpaced robust rent growth in three out of the past four years,” the report’s authors wrote. “Roughly 45% of seniors are able to afford to pay for senior housing without having to dip into savings – up 10 percentage points since ’18. Given current levels of retiree incomes, the odds of senior housing running into an affordability wall in the near term are low.”