As people enter their senior years, they often discover they no longer want or need to live in a sprawling home. Their children are grown and out of the house, which can create an expansive amount of unused space. Older homeowners also may desire a simplified layout that makes it easier to get around and requires less upkeep and maintenance. What’s more, retired seniors living on a fixed income may wish to avoid the extra expenses that come with larger homes.

Westchester Modular Offers an Assortment of Modular Homes for Seniors

A modular home can offer the perfect solution for a senior citizen who is looking to downsize. Unlike traditional site-built homes, modular homes consist of individual components (modules) that are constructed in a controlled factory environment, then transported to the site for final assembly. This results in a high-quality, energy-efficient home that can be designed and built in a fraction of the time required for stick-built homes.

An increasingly popular senior modular home design option is the “granny pod.” Specifically built with the safety of senior citizens in mind, granny pods are small, self-contained modular homes for seniors, consisting of a living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom equipped with senior-friendly features such as padded floors and handrails.

The beauty of the granny pod is that its small size makes it easy to transport the fully-assembled unit to the home of a relative, usually the senior’s adult child, for a seamless installation in the backyard. This enables the children to keep a close watch on their aging parents. Seniors love the opportunity to live close to their kids and grandchildren, while still maintaining a degree of independence with their own senior modular home.

Modular In-Law Additions

Another modular housing option for seniors is the in-law addition. Also known as “ECHO housing” due to its origins in the 1980s under the Elder Cottage Housing Opportunity program proposed by the AARP, modular in-law additions are essentially apartments that are typically connected to the home of the senior’s adult children.

As with the granny pod, the in-law modular addition includes senior-friendly lifestyle and safety features. When the senior citizen no longer lives in the modular home, the homeowner can disassemble and remove it or sell it to another family, allowing them to reclaim that portion of their property for their own use.