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Older people do not move even once, however. In spite of their reputation as migrants, people over sixty-five are the least likely to change residence of adults of any age. Our early twenties, not our sixties, are the time of life when we are most likely to move. As the years pass and we establish roots in a place, we are increasingly likely to stay put. For instance, while more than a third of all twenty- to twenty-four-year-olds (and about a fifth of the nation as a whole) changed residence from 1982 to 1983, only about five out of every hundred people over sixty-five moved that year.

The strong resistance to moving that characterizes many older people is suggested by another demographic fact. Apart from Florida, the counties with the highest concentration of older residents are in rural areas in our nation’s heartland. Whereas younger people living in these often economically depressed counties have left in droves for more urban areas, the older people refused to move. And when the elderly do move, they tend to resettle within their area, moving to a new community or state is rarer.

A survey sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons offers other clues to this stability. Why are most older people so wedded to where they are? What type of housing are older Americans likely to have, and what are the pluses and minuses about where they live? In the fall of 1982 the AARP commissioned a polling organization to conduct telephone interviews with a nationwide sample of more than a thousand Americans over age fifty-five. The poll showed that people stay in one place not out of fear or lack of money but because they like living where they are. Most people rated their housing as good or excellent. It scored the highest points on comfort and location. The most frequent complaint people had was the lack of good public transportation.

Not unexpectedly, more affluent people were likely to give their housing high ratings. People, who felt safe (not afraid of crime), those who were in good health, and – surprisingly – those who lived in large versus small cities (presumably because public transportation in large cities tends to be good), were also especially pleased with where they lived.

The poll suggested that as we get older we vote no to moving because our roots are too deep to be casually pulled up. The vast majority of the people surveyed owned their homes (about 80 percent). More than half had been living there a long time, at least ten years. The largest fraction, 39 percent, had lived where they were from twenty years to a lifetime.

When we live in one place for so long, our home becomes part of us. It is more than an asset to be traded away. So even though it may seem logical to move to a smaller space, or to a place where life is easier, we hesitate. Our home is so thick with memories that leaving can be like cutting off our past.

Economics as well as emotions lock people in. For instance, because rent increases in New York City are limited by law, it is not rare to see widows living hand-to-mouth in large luxury apartments. Although the space and the exclusive address far from affordable shopping are more of a burden than a gift, these women cannot afford to give up the 1950 prices and leave.

Moving also becomes less of a compelling idea when people calculate the cost of living in their homes versus apartments. For most of us a home is our primary asset. Eighty percent of homeowners over age sixty own their homes free and clear. So particularly in states that offer older people a reduction in property taxes, an older homeowner’s living expenses are small. The price Mrs. Jones’s home would bring on the market may seem dazzling, but what happens after she sells? The alternatives – exorbitant rent, a high purchase price and monthly assessment for a condominium – may seem worse than what she has now – space, memories, the yard, the luxury of not shelling out a hefty monthly check.

And even when they are financially able to move and want to do so in theory, people do not move because they are afraid: ‘ ‘What will happen if the choice is wrong?” ”Isn’t the stress of changing likely to be too much for me at my age?” Especially moves to places known as old-age destinations can be fraught with ghoulish symbolism: “People retire to Florida to die.” “If I give up my home for Century Village I will age just by proximity, being around all those ‘old’ people.

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GENERAL HEALTH