CCRC 2024 Monthly Fee Increase Projections Released

This week, Ziegler reviewed the results of its latest chief financial officer (CFO) hotline report, an annual survey of CFOs on what their respective continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) are planning for annual increases to independent living monthly fees in 2024, finding a median 2024 projected increase of 5 percent.

As with the last two years, 2024’s monthly increase projections are higher than the pre-pandemic convention of 3 percent; however, the 5 percent projection is slightly lower than the actual median increase in 2023 of 6 percent. Notably, the maximum actual reported increase in 2023 was 15 percent, while the maximum projected increase for 2024 stood at 12 percent.

When asked about mid-year cost-adjustment assessments to residents, only 7 percent of CFOs reported that they had issued a mid-year increase, whereas 39.2 percent indicated that they were considering such an adjustment in 2024. The data reported came from a nearly even split of contract types, with the majority (62 percent) being single-site organizations. Rental contracts reported the highest average projected increase (5.16 percent), followed by Type A (5.01 percent), all trailed by Type C (4.85 percent). By comparison, Type A contracts led the actual monthly fee increase average in 2023 at 6.39 percent.

By far, the reason given for ongoing projected fee increases was the increase in wage and labor costs, followed by inflation and then food costs. In the comments, many CFOs noted that the increases being passed on to residents were trailing actual organizational costs out of a desire not to exceed what residents could afford to pay.

Read Ziegler’s full review of the hotline report here.

Contact: Annalyse Komoroske Denio, akomoroskedenio@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8866