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MASS Design Group’s JJ Carroll Redevelopment in Boston used light-frame construction for a 180,000-square-foot building that provides 142 affordable housing units for seniors, replacing an earlier community on the same site that had just 64 apartments.
Photo Credit: MASS Design Group

Expanding Existing Markets: Senior Housing
WOODWORKS FEATURE

Senior housing represents one of the clearest structural growth opportunities of the next decade. To maintain roughly 90% occupancy, the U.S. must deliver more than 100,000 senior housing units annually through the 2030s—nearly four times today’s pace of 26,000 units per year.

Wood is already the dominant structural system in this sector:

  • Wood holds approximately 82% overall senior housing market share.

  • Wood has an 86–90% share in senior apartments and active adult segments.

  • About 83% of senior housing projects are 1–4 stories, where light-frame wood is most cost-effective.

If construction scales to meet projected demand between 2027 and 2035, FEA estimates incremental lumber demand could exceed 1.2 billion board feet annually, without assuming additional market-share gains.

WoodWorks plays a critical role in correcting misperceptions that senior housing cannot use wood, showing design teams how most senior housing can utilize a Type III, IV, or V code pathway. The WoodWorks technical experts can assist the architect and engineering teams in navigating these project-specific decisions. Since 2020, WoodWorks has assisted on more than 100 senior living projects totaling 14 million square feet, with over 65 already built.

MARKET IMPACT

  • Aligns wood systems with a decade-long demographic expansion.

  • Converts code clarity into project feasibility.

  • Protects and strengthens wood’s leadership in low-rise housing.