How to Choose a Retirement Community
What you need to know before choosing where to retire.
Originally Published by NH Magazine, Lynne Snierson
No more snow to shovel or lawns to mow, and freedom from the obligations of maintaining a private home are incentives aplenty for retirees to move to a retirement community. But before you make the emotional and financial investment, be sure to do your homework because there’s so much more to consider than swimming pools, dinner parties and walking with your dog on an idyllic nature trail.
The starting point is to get a clear understanding of the difference between a master-plan retirement community… an age-restricted neighborhood governed by a homeowners association and a continuing care retirement community (CCRC). While New Hampshire doesn’t have any master-plan retirement communities, the state map is dotted with 55-plus residential developments that sprout up like purple loosestrife. Both are entirely unlike a CCRC, which is essentially a life plan community.