State Farm Wants to Quit Florida

State Farm, Florida’s largest private insurer, wants to quit the market for homeowners’ insurance.  In a plan announced Tuesday, State Farm proposes to exit the market within two years.

State Farm claims that they can no longer operate in the Florida home market profitably.  The state’s Office of Insurance Regulation has refused State Farm’s last request for a 47% average rate increase.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was quite stern in his reply to the announcement:

“They probably charged about the highest rates in the state anyway,”
Crist said. “I think that Floridians will be much better off without
them.”

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Ole! Seniors Choosing Assisted Living in Mexico

As millions of baby boomers reach retirement age and U.S. health care costs soar, Mexican nursing home managers expect more American seniors to head south in coming years.

Mexico’s proximity to the USA, low labor costs and warm climate make it attractive, although residents caution that quality of care varies greatly in an industry that is just getting off the ground there.

Here’s more:

After Jean Douglas turned 70, she realized she couldn’t take care of herself anymore. Her knees were giving out, and winters in Bandon, Oregon, were getting harder to

bear alone. Douglas was shocked by the high cost and impersonal care at assisted living facilities near her home. After searching the Internet for other options, she joined a small but steadily growing number of Americans who are moving across the border to nursing homes in Mexico, where the sun is bright and the living is cheap.

For $1,300 a month–a quarter of what an average nursing home costs in Oregon–Douglas gets a studio apartment, three meals a day, laundry and cleaning service, and 24-hour care from an attentive staff, many of whom speak English. She wakes up every morning next to a glimmering mountain lake, and the average annual high temperature is a toasty 79 degrees. “It is paradise,” says Douglas, 74. “If you need help living or coping, this is the place to be. I don’t know that there is such a thing back (in the USA), and certainly not for this amount of money.”

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Preventing Falls in the Home

Yes, we’ve all seen the commercial.  In fact, we’ve heard the lady cry, “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” so many times that it’s become a cliche.  Unfortunately, fall in the home are still a leading form of injury among seniors.

Here’s a video that discusses things that you can do in your own home to help prevent falls:

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Bathroom Design Tips

As we get older we find that we can use a little help, particularly in the bathroom.  Here are few ideas for your bathroom to help prevent injury AND to just make things a little easier.

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The Senior Housing Industry Today

Note from the Editors of Active Senior Online -  Although Wayne Kaplan wrote this article almost one year ago, much of what he predicted has come true.  We can most probably look forward to more of what Mr. Kaplan predicts.  Whether you are an investor, a consumer, or a potential consumer of Senior Housing, Mr. Kaplan’s words should be relevant.

The Industry Today

The U.S. is in fear of a deep recession, the stock market is tanking, home prices are plummeting, unemployment is rising, retail sales are tumbling, demand for commodities is sinking, bank earnings keep falling, and consumer confidence is shaky at best. The disconnect between the seniors housing buyer and seller in today’s market continues to be fairly wide and there is apprehension on both sides of the table that didn’t exist a year or two ago. Is all lost in the seniors housing industry?

NO.  The demographics are still strong and are getting stronger. Also, there will be fewer new entrants to the industry, new construction will be scaled back and therefore there will be less competition in the coming years. As a result, good operators will go forth and prosper. The industry will periodically experience significant challenges just as it always has, including financial bubbles much like the one whose collapse is plaguing us now. In this slow acquisitions market, the few transactions that are getting done are either small, at a low price, or both.  However, the increasing size of the senior population will intensify demand for senior housing opportunities in the future, making current senior living communities even more valuable.

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