To practice your Utah accent, repeat after me: “Lard, Darris, wat a gar jus arng farmal ur wear un!” (Lord, Doris, what a gorgeous orange formal you’re wearing!). Good job!  Sister Dottie S. Dixon would be proud. Guess what?  Utahr is sa speshul that we’re now the bestest playce ta git old!

Call your folks, grab your grandmother’s dentures and your grandaddy’s reeking old Skechers and have them make Utah the last eternal place to live because Caring.com just voted us the best state in which to grow old. This data collector found that the elderly in our state have great access to high-quality care that costs far below the national median. They report our seniors on average page $35K for assisting living and $48K for a home health aide (if they want to remain in their own place but need health care). In reading the study it looks like Utah shoves the Ben Gay up the butts of all other states by having excellent nursing home costs, senior communities and more.  Iowa came in #2, followed by South Carolina, Washington State and Nebraska. 

I work a great deal with active seniors and the elderly. Many folks in the capitol city want to retire here/stay in Utah. Torrey and Escalante are beautiful places but they aren’t near health care. Moab is swell but good luck finding housing in the town. And you have to love the temperature of HELL if you want to live in St. George in the summer! Lard Darris, it’s sa hot down ta Saint Gaarge that you gots to eats hot chiles jus to cool yer mouth off. Ya gotta put ice in ur water bed! And the chickins lay the hard bowled eggs! The study found we are great in caring for our seniors but I’m not so sure it focued much on senior housing other than care centers.

There aren’t that many senior-only apartments or condos available along the Wasatch front where the majority of people are 55 years or older. It’s also extremely hard to find one-level housing.  Legacy Village of Sugar House opened its doors last month and made a dent in our dire needs here for elder care. The 6 level senior housing component offers 286 luxury residential units, dining, meeting and activity rooms and a theater mixed in with main floor retail and office space.  Even though the state’s average age is under 30 years old we have a ton of Baby Boomers. And Boomers are getting long in the tooth (like me) and are feeling the housing crunch. Darris, it’s jus swell ta have all them hospitals for us, but if ya ain’t got no place to live but Pioneer Park they ain’t no use! It might be time to offer housing incentives to builders focusing on seniors-since we are now the #1 place to grow old!