>Let me say it the other way around. A single older adult probably has more incentive to leave the marital home and move to a community that provides companionship and takes care of things like lawn mowing, leaf raking, snow shoveling, household maintenance, etc.
>
>LOL!!! That is why we built our house in Arkansas. Instead of 5 inches of snow a day in the winter, we get 5 inches of snow a year. As Andy has gotten older, the snow shoveling and lawn mowing has beaten him up more and more. We don't have a lawn here - almost everyone in the community has gravel. The leaves are a problem, but we are going to hire someone to get rid of them for us.
>
>I think that the bigger incentive for staying in the marital home is the number of family members and close childhood friends that live nearby - regardless of whether or not one is single.

I think there are two different paths here. You and Andy took the "move somewhere warmer" path. I agree that family and friends nearby are a big disincentive to doing this.

But I've known lots of older people who moved locally, typically from a single house to something smaller, whether an apartment, townhouse or even a smaller single family house. Where we are, there are some couples who sell the house in the suburbs and move to an apartment or condo downtown, once the kids are out.

For sure, in the large 55+ community my in-laws live in, there are a lot more singles (mostly women) than couples. Demographic truth, I think.

Tamar