a third – Margaret Burke says her 91-year-old mother in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has aged well in a condo that costs far less than assisted living, thanks to services built into the community and a setup that lets Burke care remotely from Taiwan.
For six years, Margaret Burke has lived halfway across the world while her mother kept busy back in the U.S.—walking, shopping, taking day trips to museums, and even crocheting with friends.
Her mother. a 91-year-old who worked for over 20 years as a paralegal for a town on Long Island. lives in Myrtle Beach. South Carolina. Burke, 62 and a patent attorney, supports the arrangement remotely from Taiwan. The payoff. she says. is simple: her mother can stay independent in a condo that comes with daily meals and a menu of services. while Burke can keep working and saving for her own long-term care.
Burke paid around $62,000 for the condo and put it in her mother’s name. When her mother moved in at 85, the monthly fee was $1,700. Today it is over $2,000 a month for a bigger unit. The apartment is about 860 square feet for a two-bedroom.
The monthly cost covers far more than a typical condo bill. Burke says it includes meals—mostly dinners—utilities, activities, a pool, and other amenities. She also describes transportation and programming: a bus to the supermarket and field trips. gardening sessions. exercise classes. Bible study groups. and movie nights.
Car insurance is among the additional expenses her mother covers, but Burke adds that she has just given up driving.
Burke’s mother’s pension and Social Security help anchor the plan. Her mother has a small pension and gets Social Security. The community itself, Burke says, isn’t a luxury development. The condos are typically $40,000 to $70,000, paired with affordable monthly fees.
“She doesn’t need the help,” Burke says of her mother now, “but I want to.” Burke plans to move back to the U.S. with her mother this summer or fall.
What makes Burke’s setup unusual is how much it contrasts with what she sees elsewhere in aging care: not only in the U.S. but in the way independent living and assisted living can quietly converge into higher prices. Burke says she has watched “consolidation” of what were once separate independent living communities. and she links that to significantly increased costs.
She also points to a gap that many families feel acutely: plenty of people, she says, including many residents like her mother, cannot afford assisted living. When health declines, children help—or outside caregivers step in. Some residents also rely on Medicaid.
Burke says she has seen residents live far beyond the 90s. “Many people here have lived to over 100,” she says, including her mother’s friend who died last year at 103. Some residents require more assistance than others and call in outside caregivers.
A few people, Burke adds, have tried assisted living and “hated it.”
For Burke, the stakes are personal, not abstract. She bought a unit in the same community for her brother, who was dying of brain tumors. He lived there for a year and a half before passing away in December. Burke says the decision was a blessing for him, and she has stayed there for several months while helping him.
She also keeps returning to one idea: many people in their 90s can live healthy, independent lives when the services around them are built into daily routine.
In Burke’s account, those services matter because they reduce the frantic uncertainty families often face as mobility changes. She describes her mother as “always on the go,” with frequent activities and a tight connection to other residents. Burke says she and her mother also meet many residents’ families.
Burke says she believes this model exists in limited form elsewhere in the U.S.—“a few other examples of this condo model” in states like Virginia—but she says she and her family “hadn’t encountered this before looking.” She ties the pricing to the way the properties are run. She says prices stay low because it’s not a management company in the usual sense: the condo hires its own management. which hires its own maintenance. and a few engineers keep the property running.
That structure, Burke believes, becomes more valuable as baby boomers age.
Her life in Taiwan adds another layer of practicality to the story. Burke says she has permanent residency there, so she can move back at any time. She has stayed there as long as she has because of breast cancer. She also credits Taiwan’s medical system for making that life possible: from diagnosis to surgery table took 13 days. which she describes as efficient. She has now spent years in a rhythm where computers let her do her work from anywhere while her mother remains nearby.
Burke hopes her experience can give other families “peace of mind.” She says she wants her daughter. who is 37 and lives in Manhattan. not to have to abandon her life to provide care. Her view is shaped by what she has seen: the human reality that care often lands on adult children. even when it comes at a cost.
She is blunt about the missing middle in U.S. long-term care. Burke says there is a “third path” between independent living and assisted living that is affordable for most middle-income seniors.
If her mother’s daily life is any indication, Burke believes that path is not only possible—it can be lived, meal by meal, in a condo where the monthly fee does more than pay for a roof.
long-term care assisted living costs independent living condos for seniors Myrtle Beach aging in place Taiwan medical system Social Security Medicaid