Study outlines housing issues
City may start looking at services ‘that will serve our senior population.’
With an WEST CARROLLTON — aging population, West Carrollton may want to shift its focus to cater more toward the lifestyle of current and future senior citizens.
At the same time, West Carrollton’s considerable rental housing occupied largely by younger residents — coupled with reasonably priced homes — could make the city ripe to stabilize its population.
Those are among the findings in a market analysis the city commissioned last fall. The report by Doug Harnish of Market Metric$ LLC of Dayton cost West Carrollton $8,000 and uses information compiled in the final quarter of 2015 and the first three months of this year.
“In terms of housing, I anticipate council will want to talk about if we need to enhance our services to our senior population in the face of the changing demographics,” City Manager Brad Townsend said.
“But in the long term — as the study points out — there’ll be housing opportunities that will become available that we’ll want to try to market to younger families,” he added.
The median age of West Carrollton’s estimated 13,000 residents is expected to jump from 37.9 years in 2015 to 38.8 years. Meanwhile, the median age for head of household is expected to go from 50.3 years to 52 years during that same time frame.
By 2020, 45.4 percent of heads of household in West Carrollton are projected to be age 55 or older, an increase of almost 4 percent from 2015, according to the report.
With this aging trend, the city needs to “start looking at trying to attract some services that will serve our senior population,” West