If you and your clients going to be alive 30 or 40 years from now, will you want to live where you’re living now?

I suspect not, and it’s not just because many of us will want to move to a warmer climate or get a smaller place that doesn’t have a lawn that needs mowing. Sure, they might be factors in your decision to move. But equally so will be the emergence of homes and communities that offer features, advantages and opportunities you’ll embrace. Let’s explore them.

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities
My parents found themselves living in a retirement community even though they hadn’t moved from their home of 40 years. Mom and Dad bought their home in 1957 in one of those sprawling new bedroom communities of the postwar era. With a mortgage provided by the G.I. Bill, they were able to attain the American dream: a home of their own, a 2,000 square foot, split-level house on a postage-stamp-sized lot in a brand new neighborhood. They were in their early 30s, with two kids and a dog (I wouldn’t arrive for another two years), just like every other family in the neighborhood. There was a brand new elementary school down the street. A new swim club, too.

Fast-forward 40 years. My parents were still living in that house. Almost all their neighbors were still living in their houses, too. But instead of having trucks delivering reusable cloth diapers to the moms and soft-serve ice cream to the kids, Meals on Wheels delivered food to elderly homeowners who lacked the mobility to shop for food or cook. The local swim club had adults-only hours, and the elementary school was a senior center.

Without intending it, and without even knowing it, my parents found themselves living in a NORC (naturally occurring retirement community). You might, too. Or you might decide to move to a neighborhood that offers services needed and desired by people in their second or third half-century.

In my parents’ case, they didn’t live in their NORC for long. Dad had shifted his company’s business activities to Las Vegas, so instead of commuting a couple thousand miles every couple of weeks (as he had found himself doing for a few years), my parents decided to relocate.
And they chose a new home in a—you guessed it—over-55 community. This is another kind of NORC, and they are much more common. Rather than evolving to serve seniors, these communities are designed for seniors from their inception.

Over-55 communities and NORCs house 36% of U.S. seniors, according to AARP. They offer a variety of services, including yard work, household chores, transportation services, social programs—even health-care management. Monthly dues range from $100 to $1,000, in addition to the cost of the home itself. Some communities are apartment buildings; others feature mansions.

But saying you built a community on purpose isn’t the same as saying you’ve built an intentional community. That is something entirely different.

Intentional Communities
Intentional communities are for people who identify with one another. The affinity could be based on any commonality—geography; history; vision; purpose; philosophy; or common social, economic and political interests. They are designed for sustainable living, personal and cultural transformation and social evolution. And they’ve been around a long time: The Fellowship for Intentional Community, which provides support services to intentional communities, has roots dating to 1937. As of 2016, ic.org lists 2,234 intentional communities in 78 countries, including 1,546 in the United States.

Co-Housing
“Co-housing” has a misleading name, because it refers to an entire community, not just one house.

When you buy a house in a co-housing development, the home itself is yours. It will probably be in a cluster and small (700 to 1,200 square feet), with cars parked on the perimeter of the community. The largest structure is the common house, which typically features a communal kitchen and dining area, as well as living rooms and parlors, a game room, library, gym, media room, workshop and hobby/craft room. Some even have guest rooms. Keeping the homes small and the common house large encourages residents to socialize.

When these units are new, buyers participate in designing the community’s grounds and features. Unlike in typical apartment and condominium buildings, there is no resident manager; instead, the residents work together to maintain the community.

At this writing, there are 160 co-housing communities (of which 28 are restricted to seniors) in 25 states. To learn more, go to cohousing.org, the website of the Cohousing Association of the United States.

Shared Housing
This is defined as elders (usually unrelated) living together for companionship. They typically share expenses.

If you’re having trouble envisioning this, simply recall The Golden Girls. In the TV sitcom, Dorothy (played by Bea Arthur) lives in a house with her spunky mother Sophia (Estelle Getty); the sex-crazed Southern belle Blanche (Rue McClanahan); and ditzy Rose (Betty White), a Norwegian-American from St. Olaf, Minn. The girls support one another financially and emotionally, and enjoy friendships and relationships that only roommates can develop.

Shared housing is very common, accounting for about 4 million U.S. households, according to AARP and the National Shared Housing Resource Center.

Before You Cohabit
If your clients are going to cohabit with anyone other than a spouse, they should obtain the services of an attorney who can draft a contract stipulating the legal and financial rights, responsibilities and penalties associated with the arrangement. Details will vary based on who owns the property; who pays for main-tenance, repairs, capital improvements, taxes and insurance; and even who has the right to use shared facilities and under what circumstances. The agreement should also stipulate what happens if a member of the household fails to live up to his or her obligations.

Ecovillages
Ecovillages are for people concerned about the environment. Named by the United Nations as one of the world’s 100 Best Practices for Sustainable Living in 1998, ecovillage residents grow as much of their own food as possible, create homes using local materials, operate renewable energy systems, protect nature and safeguard wilderness areas. Many communities even create their own currencies, which helps residents support one another’s small businesses. The Global Ecovillage Network lists hundreds of ecovillages worldwide.

Housing Cooperatives
Just about everyone in New York City knows what a co-op is. More than 1.5 million New Yorkers live in one, and the concept is spreading to the rest of the country.

In almost every other real estate concept, including all those we’ve discussed so far, you buy and own your property, whether it’s a single-family home or an apartment in a larger building. But that’s not the case with co-ops. Instead, a corporation owns both the building and your apartment. You therefore buy membership in the corporation; doing so gives you the right to live in a specific apartment.

And because it’s a membership-based corporation, the members of that corporation get to decide who’s allowed to join (and thus move into the building). When you bought and moved into your current home, your neighbors had no say. But in a co-op, they have lots of say. In fact, they’ll require you to submit to a background check and a series of interviews with other residents. If they don’t like you—they don’t have to say why—you won’t be allowed to purchase your home (uh, er, your membership in the corporation). Madonna and Richard Nixon had their applications rejected by co-op boards.

Many co-ops were constructed by trade unions, to ensure that their members—and only their members—had places to live. Student housing co-ops are also common at colleges throughout the country. And that’s a key appealing aspect of co-ops: Once you’re in, you can help make sure that only folks you’d enjoy living with come in, too!

You can learn more at coophousing.org, the website of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives.

Unless you have the view of Groucho Marx, who said he would never join a club that would have him as a member.

Niche Communities
Niche communities are designed for people who share a common identity. This could be union membership, artistic inclination, religious faith, sexual orientation—or even being alumni of the same university. Entrance fees range from $1,000 to $500,000 or more, and monthly fees can be thousands of dollars. Two examples are the Fountaingrove Lodge, an LGBTQ community in Santa Rosa, Calif., and the Village at Penn State, a residence for the school’s alumni.

The Village Model
The concept is simple: Instead of leaving your home to move into senior housing or assisted living, you and others in your neighborhood form a nonprofit organization that provides services so you can all keep living at home.

A 2012 study published by The Gerontologist found 42 villages across the United States; by 2016, according to the Village to Village Network, that number had tripled. There are now 205 such villages in 38 states, and more are being established each year.

Some villages comprise just a few city blocks; those in rural areas might cover a 20-mile radius. Typical services include modifications to make your home accessible, transportation, meal delivery, dog walking, health and wellness programs, social activities, nurses and care managers.
Most villages have 150 to 200 members. Entrance fees can range from $1,000 to $500,000 or more, depending on whether the price includes the cost of the property. Monthly fees range from $50 to $1,500. The average resident is a middle-class, 74-year-old woman.
To learn more, visit vtvnetwork.org.

Don’t Just Choose The Type—Choose The Location, Too
All the housing environments described above can be found in the Midwest as well as on the coasts. Both location and community should be considered when deciding which type of community appeals to you. An ideal location might be one you have never considered.

For example, 39% of the U.S. population lives in a county that borders an ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, suggesting that lots of folks want to be near the water. Even if that describes you, you can’t ignore the Midwest. After all, being far from an ocean doesn’t mean you’re far from water. Millions of Americans live on or near a lake or river, with benefits they say strongly outweigh being next to an ocean: Lakes and rivers contain fresh water, not seawater and don’t suffer from sharks, jellyfish or seaweed. Many lakes even offer waves (Lake Michigan gets two- to four-foot waves in the summer and four- to eight-footers in the winter; Lake Superior’s waves can hit 20 feet). And water sports and boating on both are common.

The Midwest offers another advantage, too: When we no longer need tens of millions of acres for farming and ranching, thanks to the innovations described earlier, all that land will become available for redevelopment. This suggests it will be both cheap and plentiful.

And if you regard living in the Midwest as being in the middle of nowhere and a million miles from anywhere, fear not—thanks to self-driving vehicles. You won’t mind spending two or three hours in a car to get to a major urban center, according to research by the Global Cities program at the Nature Conservancy. Its study says that the easier it is to get from one place to another, the more willing people are to travel.

In other words, if you can enjoy a luxurious commute that allows you to read, watch a video, listen to music, play a game, interact with others—or even sleep—you won’t mind being in a car for long periods. And I haven’t even mentioned the productivity opportunities a long commute will provide you: you can study, participate in meetings virtually, and do as much work as you wish, undisturbed by others.

So as you and your clients contemplate the kind of community you’d like to live in, give some thought to where you’d like to live as well. Your ideal location might surprise you.

This article was written by advisor Ric Edelman and is chapter 18 of his new book, The Truth About Your Future: The Money Guide You Need Now, Later, and Much Later, published in March 2017 by Simon & Schuster.