The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the 75+ age group is growing from 19.8 million people today, to 23.4 million by 2020 and 41.7 million by 2035. Homeownership peaks around 71 years old, according to many sources. Beyond that age, households show a greater tendency to rent. Independent living communities have been gaining in popularity. These serve aging, but healthy, seniors who want to get away from the upkeep of a home. Check out http://www.ncil.org/
Of the 214,000 apartments delivered in 2014, 36% (96,000) were less than 1,000 square feet. In the West, 42% of new apartments were under 1,000 square feet. In Seattle, 700 or so Micro-Apartments, less than 200 square feet, have surfaced with some success. In fact, another couple thousand are currently planned. The city of Seattle wants to regulate them, of course. These smaller units could possibly forestall the advent of rent control, a topic which has resurfaced lately.