Continuing Care Retirement Communities (usually referred to as CCRCs) are a relatively new idea. What if you could move into an independent living apartment with elegant appointments. In the same complex, there would be an assisted living wing and even a skilled nursing facility. That way you could simply move from one part of the complex to another as you aged and needed increasing assistance.

But that does mean two things:

The facility will need to be large enough to have all of the options, and have enough residents to keep the census high. Residents are needed in order for the faiclity to offer a full range of services. The plan has to be long-term. New residents might expect to live in the Continuing Care Retirement Community for twenty or even thirty years.

Both of those concerns mean that the project will have to be well capitalized. And that creates the very tension that we most often see: most CCRCs have a very healthy buy-in requirement. In fact, the national average entrance fee for Continuing Care Retirement Communities might be as high as $400,000!

There are only a handful of Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern Arizona, and they range from modest to plush. We’ve had clients in all of them, and can report that those clients say they like the amenities and living arrangements. But it can be a daunting decision to buy into a CCRC, for certain.