Google's Fine, But It Can't Hold a Timeline

Senior Housing News recently covered how senior living marketers are pivoting to Gen X as the adult child driving the senior living decision. AARP data puts the average family caregiver at 51, squarely in the Gen X cohort, and communities are adapting their sales and marketing accordingly. They research more independently, more digitally, and often more subtly than Boomers, doing the homework before anyone at the community even knows they're looking.

Gen X is comfortable with technology in a way that can make a complex logistical problem look more manageable than it is. You can find all the resources you need on your phone – that’s certainly become the case over on the relo side, and chances are it’s picking up steam here in the senior transition space.

Thumb-typing on a phone and managing real people in real time, however, are very different beasts. Technology doesn't address the fact that the adult child is coordinating the myriad moving parts of a transition while also managing a career, a household, and in many cases, a parent who needs attention and care throughout the process. At the time of this writing, there is no app for that.

Gen X may be the most self-sufficient generation of adult children the senior living industry has seen, and that's precisely what makes it easy to underestimate how much is actually on their plate once the lease is signed.