Forever Through What?

“This is the one.” I hear it constantly. From the clients I've designed for, from real estate agents, from the building community, from every home show on television. People say it with their whole hearts. They mean this is where we stay. This is where the memories get made. This is the house we keep forever.

I love that, and I want more people to actually get to live it. There's one question that turns it from a hope into a plan: forever through what?

Forever through a knee replacement. Through a parent moving in. Through a stroller in the hallway, and a walker in the same hallway twenty years later. Through the surprises none of us schedule and most of us meet eventually.

When we say forever, we're making a promise about the future. The wonderful thing is that a house can absolutely keep that promise, when we design it to. Closing the small gap between the promise and the structure is the opportunity I built my company around.

The head start most people don't realize they have

It can feel early to think about any of this at thirty or forty. You're buying the house with the good light and the yard for the dog. But that's exactly the moment of greatest opportunity, because the earlier you plan, the more choices you get to keep.

The trends give us a clear picture to plan around. By 2030, every baby boomer in America will be 65 or older, roughly 73 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 10,000 Americans reach 65 every day, and more than 4 million did in 2024 alone. By the middle of the next decade, the Census projects that older adults will outnumber children for the first time in our history.

The industry has a name for this that makes it sound like a natural disaster. I see it differently. It's the largest, clearest invitation the housing world has ever received to build better. We know these neighbors are coming, and we know what they want. That's not a warning. That's a head start.

People have already told us what they want

AARP put the question to people directly in its 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey. 75% of adults age 50 and older want to remain in their current home as they age. 73% want to stay in their community. That's a gift of clarity. People have told us precisely what they want. They want to stay put, in the home they love, on their own terms.

And here's the part I like: we already know how to deliver it. In that same survey, people named the exact features that make independence easier. Grab bars (72%). Ramps, chair lifts and wider doorways (71%). Access to nature, natural light, good indoor air quality.

None of these are mysteries. They're design choices we can make on purpose, early, and beautifully.

Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that fewer than 4% of U.S. homes offer the three foundational features of an accessible home. Single-floor living. A no-step entry. Doorways and hallways wide enough to navigate with a wheelchair or walker. I don't read that as a shortfall. I read it as wide-open opportunity, a chance for builders, designers and buyers to lead.

That same research projects that 17 million older households will include someone with a mobility need by 2035. The demand is clear, the solutions are known, and the field is wide open.

The signals all line up. The National Association of Home Builders finds that 64% of buyers already prefer single-story living. People know what they want. Now we get to build it for them, at scale.

It's not just comfort, it's vitality

Here's where good design earns its keep. Falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older, and about one in four experiences one each year. A lot of that is a design problem before it's a medical one. Stairs, step-up entries, tight bathrooms and bad lighting are exactly the things a thoughtful plan solves at the drawing stage. That's when solving them is nearly free.

That's the opportunity in one sentence. A well-designed house isn't just nicer to live in. It keeps more of your options open, for longer.

That's why I think the phrases we use to sell houses deserve real definitions and real standards. We tell people a house will carry them through a lifetime, and nobody ever has to prove it. That shouldn't be marketing language. It should be a design promise we know how to keep. That's the work in front of builders, architects and designers, and it's some of the most meaningful work our industry will ever do.

Why I bet the company on this

At Rummer Development, I've stress-tested this idea from every angle. Through hundreds of consultations, with existing Rummer owners, future buyers, architects, designers, builders and engineers, I kept arriving at the same encouraging truth. I built my company around it. A Rummer is a prescriptive solution for someone who wants a house designed for longevity.

These authentic mid-century modern homes were, in many ways, ahead of their time. Single-level living. Open, navigable floor plans. No-step entries and generous sightlines. An atrium at the center of the plan, putting light in the middle of the house. Indoor-outdoor flow.

The best mid-century designs already had the features today's research says we need. My job is bringing them back to market, beautifully, and built for a lifetime.

And I don't have to make the case in the abstract. I hear it from the people already living in these houses. One couple has been in the same Rummer for 42 years. They're both 94, and they're still in it. That's a house doing its job for a whole life, which is exactly what I'm trying to build again.

The best time is now

None of this is complicated. It's simply the convergence of good data. Demographic, medical and housing research all point the same hopeful direction. The most valuable thing you can build into a house is the ability to keep living in it.

So my encouragement is simple, and I'd offer it to a 35-year-old as gladly as a 65-year-old. You are early, and early is a wonderful place to be. Planning now isn't bracing for something bad. It's giving your future self more freedom, more comfort and more choice. The best time to make a house forever is while you still have every option open, which is right now.

I see it as one of the smartest investments you can make. That's what a house should be, a place that grows more supportive as your life unfolds. The opportunity is right in front of us. Let's build like we mean it.

Aubrey McCormick is the CEO of Rummer Development in Portland, Oregon. She is bringing authentic mid-century modern homes back to market, designed for longevity and built to current code.

A version of this essay first appeared on Orivon Wellness.