We’re not getting any younger, and no one knows that better than Steve Mathews.
That didn’t come out right. It’s not because he’s over the hill, rather because he is a “senior advisor,” perhaps doubled in entendre, with WholeCare Connections, Inc., a group specializing in personal care services, private duty caregiving, medical management, and transportation.
“By 2020,” Mathews says, it is expected that one out of three households will be caring for elderly or disabled relatives in their homes.” The majority of those needing care, today and in 2020, are seniors. The health care for those seniors, some 35 -40 million, will be delivered by family members, thereby affecting the health, families, work and relationships of those family members caring for their relatives.
Many in his field say there will be a “tsunami” of seniors, perhaps topping 70 million by 2030, causing most employers to be forced to deal with lost productivity as their employees care for parents. Even in today’s pre-tsunami world, Mathews estimates the loss in productivity could be as much as $30 to $40 billion.
In the aging community, 90 percent want to live and die in their own homes, and “aging in place as a concept is resonating broadly across the culture today with models called ‘naturally occurring retirement communities’ and elder-friendly villages gaining traction,” Mathews says.
The research performed by the Mathews’ group finds seniors are not proactive about their health and tend to wait for crisis, often leaving sons and daughters in the dark due to issues of pride, fear, trust, privacy, trust, distant location or even inertia. He suggests it is of great importance to have that conversation.
The licensed “personal support services industry” had its birth in Nashville in the mid-1990s and is the regulatory agency for firms such as Mathews’.
Sales of the Week
Several weeks ago, Paul Soper, an attorney with West End Title, provided copies of restrictive covenants for a subdivision that stated that persons of African descent were prohibited from purchasing homes in that area.
Additionally, the covenants stated the owners of the property were forbidden to lease the property to a person with African roots. These restrictions are, of course, unenforceable and lay buried deep in the deeds.
Since that the column ran, others have reported it is not unusual to see the same language forbidding transfers to those of Hebrew descent, particularly in the Woodmont Estates area. Such atrocious restrictions, once again, are certainly unenforceable.
One group, for whom exclusion from property ownership would be ridiculous since it owned the entire continent, would be Native Americans. While they have been successful in having mocking, denigrating mascots removed from certain colleges and professional sports teams, subdivision and street names have not been amended or modified in many areas.
1535 Mohawk Trail
In fairness, some of these neighborhoods were so named to honor the rich heritage. Others might not have been. After all, Nashville is the home of Andrew “Trail of Tears” Jackson.
This week, the sales of the week feature two homes in areas named for Native Americans.
The first property is located at Mohawk Trail and is in the subdivision officially registered as Nawakwa Hills Powwow, which is in Neely’s Bend, northwest across the Cumberland River from the Opryland area.
Perhaps the developer of the subdivision had visited any of a number of lodges, be they YMCA or Boy Scouts, across the country.
At the Lodge in Virginia, Nawakwa dancers are steeped in tradition and perform Native American dances in traditional attire.
Other streets in the neighborhood are named Comanche, Pawnee and Kiowa, all tribes from the western United States.
Another street, Ocoee, is the area of Florida in which the Seminole tribe resided. A bordering street is Crete, which, our geography lessons tell us, is the most populous of the Greek Islands.
The home in Nawakwa Powwow Hills on Mohawk Trail sold for $108,500 in only 63 days.
Kimberly Cunliffe of the Wilson Group listed the home, which was updated with a new roof and HVAC unit.
Thanks to the hailstorm last year, almost everyone in town has a new roof, not to mention the new insurance premium to go along with it.
6528 Broken Bow Drive
Many are privileged enough to have been introduced to new insurance carriers, as some firms have had more of Nashville than they can afford.
Sherri VonLobstein of Vision Realty Partners brought the buyers. The previous owner had paid $58,775 and took advantage of the strong market, having bought the home from the New York Bank of Mellon, whose borrower fell prey to weak housing market of 2011.
Timing is everything.
Many neighborhoods had their names recorded at the courthouse under one name, but have are better known by a pseudonym. For example, few know the heart of the music industry – located on 16th, 17th and 18th Avenues – is in the Hayes Rokeby subdivision, though it is now known as Music Row.
The houses on Estes Drive are considered to be in Green Hills but could be in any of a number of recorded subdivisions such as Evergreen Heights, Comptonwood, W.M.Cantrell or McClure.
The home located at Broken Bow Drive is in Indian Creek Estates, which is actually on Indian Creek.
Gail Osborne of Terry Bone Real Estate listed the home with 2,570 square feet, a granite kitchen, pond and a master suite with a whirlpool and sold it in 26 days for $185,000 after listing it for $199,000 and promoting that she had a motivated seller.
The seller had paid $169,000 in 1999 and had relocated, hence the motivation.
The developer in this area had become aware of Native American lore and named his streets for prominent places. With street names that include Tuckaleechee Lane, Santeetlah Way and Stecoah Court, I hope he was not charged by the letter for his street signs.
The Stecoah Valley is in North Carolina, as is Lake Santeetlah. The Tuckaleechee Caverns are in Townsend and are billed as “The Greatest site under the Smokies.”
While there are a few streets named Broken Bow and a Broken Arrow or two, I have never heard of a Jammed Remington or Rusty Winchester.
Richard Courtney is a partner with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney, and Associates and can be reached at [email protected].