When 51-year-old Pazit Aviv walks her canine in her Silver Spring, Md., neighborhood, it takes an additional half-hour as she inevitably will get misplaced in an impromptu chat with a neighbor.
“I know every single person in a three-street radius,” says Aviv, who has lived within the Washington, D.C., suburb for a decade and raised two youngsters right here. Silver Spring, which ranks No. 1 on this 12 months’s Fortune Finest Locations to Reside for Households, has been a perfect hometown for Aviv. It’s shut sufficient to D.C. to benefit from the metropolis’s many facilities, however Silver Spring has its personal thriving arts and restaurant scene, plus high-performing colleges. It’s the tight-knit group, nevertheless, that makes Aviv need to dwell right here into previous age. “We have meals together, and meal trains when a family has a baby or if someone is sick,” she says.
An important place to dwell not solely helps households within the current, but in addition serves them in the long run. With a rising portion of People caring for each youngsters and growing older mother and father, extra folks need to dwell the place multigenerational households can thrive.
It’s not simply older adults who’re taking the lengthy view. Almost one in 5 Gen X homebuyers bought houses supposed for multigenerational households final 12 months, in accordance with the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors. More and more, first-time millennial and Gen Z homebuyers plan to remain of their houses for no less than a decade.
“What we’re seeing is a longing of older people to age in place, and younger people, like Gen Z, to have a sense of place that they consider home,” says Jon Jon Wesolowski, an urbanist and housing advocate who sees extra folks keen to alter their home to swimsuit them as they age fairly than to maneuver.
On this 12 months’s rating, we analyzed over 2,000 cities and practically 200 knowledge classes, assessing livability, monetary well being, assets for growing older adults, schooling, and wellness. The winners are communities which are sustainable for his or her youngest and oldest residents—together with many fast-growing suburbs and edge cities that discover artistic methods to enhance folks’s well-being.
The Small-Metropolis Draw
Based on the Census Bureau, a number of the nation’s fastest-growing locations are edge cities or exurbs. Edge cities fill a spot for folks priced out of busy metros, Wesolowski notes. They’re usually housing clusters outlined by a metropolis sq. or public park.
“What people are looking for is that balance of, ‘I can afford to live here, so I don’t have to work all the time, but then in my free time, there are actually people to connect with and things to do,’ ” he tells Fortune.
Smaller cities are likely to prioritize social and group well-being greater than city facilities do, says sociologist Michael Rickles, vp of analysis at Sharecare.
A few of this 12 months’s high locations—together with Chantilly, Va. (No. 3), and Morristown, N.J. (No. 9)—have fewer than 30,000 residents and scored among the many highest on Sharecare’s Group Properly-Being Index.
“There’s something to be said about the known limits of a small space, because you’re more comfortable in it, and you’re more likely to know who people are,” says Rickles.
Getting older in Place
The variety of hospitals, nursing houses, and assisted-living facilities a metropolis supplies performs a job in figuring out whether or not it’s a finest place to dwell. However different key attributes, like a metropolis’s social isolation threat, entry to groceries, and walkability, are equally related.
Susann Crawford, a senior vp at Caring.com, says aging-friendly cities supply facilities that may bolster residents’ high quality of life and lengthen their well being span.
“When we rate a good place, we try to ensure a true higher-quality lifestyle to make sure that people can have a longevity of [available resources], not just for a short time.”
Silver Spring Village is a main instance of how a metropolis’s assets can assist foster wellness amongst older adults. For a beginning annual price of $200, the nonprofit organizes social outings for members, from museum journeys to exhibits on the native theater. Village volunteers present hands-on help, from medical note-taking to transportation to the grocery retailer.
Silver Spring Village, Inc
“Our focus is on sustaining a robust network of neighbors helping neighbors, to provide the kinds of practical support that allow older adults to continue living as independently as possible in their own homes and communities,” Doug Gaddis, govt director of Silver Spring Village, tells Fortune.
There are greater than 300 communities nationwide that use this ‘village’ mannequin—Montgomery County, which incorporates Silver Spring, is residence to almost 30. “It’s not professionals stepping in. It’s people down the street. It’s your neighbors who are also part of the village,” Gaddis says.
What Makes a Metropolis “Well”?
Specialists say that each one generations are more and more drawn to locations that help their well being past the normal brick-and-mortar well being care mannequin.
Sharecare has surveyed over 5 million People to this point to calculate a metropolis’s Group Properly-Being Index, which Fortune factored into its evaluation.
“We know that health isn’t just what’s happening inside your body,” says Rickles. “It’s your social connections, your perceptions of safety, and there’s a lot that goes into what makes a city well.” The index is a “person-centric” metric and considers social determinants of well being, equivalent to entry to transportation, inexperienced areas, parks, libraries, and group.
Younger folks specifically need to put down roots in accessible communities. “They aren’t outspoken about the yard and the white picket fence. They’re outspoken about walkability and the autonomy they could have by being able to meet the needs of their life within a 15- to 20-minute walk from their home,” Wesolowski says.
How linked folks really feel—notably amid a unbroken loneliness epidemic—is a crucial pillar of wellness.
“Especially the folks who are aging remember a time when neighbors knew one another. They cared for each other, and you didn’t need to think too hard about it,” Aviv says. “Social infrastructure is not frivolous.”
Perhaps essentially the most comforting function of her hometown, is that Aviv has a neighbor or member of the family to lean on if she wants help: “I can’t think of a more connected, meaningful way of living for me and my family.”
