75% of Adults 50-Plus Want to Stay Put: Kitchen and Bath Choices You'll Live With

If you plan to stay in your house, think past how a new kitchen or bath looks this year. You're also choosing what you'll reach for and step over years from now.

In AARP's 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey, 75% of adults 50 and older agreed they'd like to stay where they live now "for as long as possible." People 55 or older head about 53% of owner-occupied homes in Maricopa County and about 65% in Scottsdale, Census Bureau estimates show.

Wanting to stay doesn't make your house ready. In the same survey, 43% of adults 50-plus said their home would need changes to suit someone needing physical help. Of those, 72% named the bathroom and 39% named kitchen features such as lower countertops.

Phoenix now requires some of this in new homes. In June 2025, the City Council approved a code update adding accessibility requirements, the Daily Independent reported. In homes the rule covers, at least one entrance has no step, and bathrooms on the entrance level get walls reinforced for future grab bars.

In a house that's already standing, those decisions are yours to make if you remodel.

Plan the Kitchen Around Reach, Grip and Light

Start your list with storage. Pullout drawers in lower cabinets beat fixed shelves for seeing and reaching what's inside, according to AARP's HomeFit Guide. Knobs are harder to grasp than C- or D-shaped pulls, so ask for those. At the sink, a lever or sensor faucet is easier to use than turn-style handles.

If you're replacing counters, consider more than one height. A 1996 guide prepared for HUD called a lower section more comfortable for someone shorter or seated.

Add task lighting where you work, over the sink and the stove.

If the counter and floor are close in color, someone with a vision impairment may have trouble seeing where one ends and the other begins, AARP's guide says. Polished floors can be slick underfoot. In a sunny room, MedlinePlus says, a shiny floor can throw enough glare to make getting around harder. Look at floor samples in daylight.

Plan the Bath for Needs You Don't Have Yet

The bathroom earns extra thought. Along with bedrooms and stairs, it was one of the three most common places for falls at home in a CDC-authored study. It covered adults 65 and older treated in U.S. emergency departments in 2015 for falls whose location was known.

In Houzz's 2026 bathroom survey, grab bars and nonslip flooring topped the choices of users renovating for aging in place. For the shower, 55% chose a low curb and 32% no curb. A wide, doorless shower with no step is accessible for all, AARP says.

You may not want grab bars yet. If your remodel opens a tub wall, that's what the 1996 guide called a good time to consider reinforcing it for bars later, so bring it up at the start.

Ask, too, about a comfort-height toilet, which AARP puts at 17 to 19 inches against a standard 15, and a handheld showerhead that adjusts for different heights.

Choose What You'll Still Want to Clean

Phoenix and Scottsdale water is hard: 10 to 17.6 grains per gallon across Phoenix's system in its 2025 report; about 13 to 17 in Scottsdale Water's 2026 report. That can mean scaling on faucets and showerheads, Phoenix says, and soap scum in showers and baths, Scottsdale Water says. Ask how each fixture and surface gets cleaned, and whether you'd still want that job in 15 years.

Make the List Before the Design

Raise all of this before a design exists, and bring anyone helping you decide. At Superior Stone & Cabinet, the author's company, a remodel runs in six steps, and design comes after a first consultation and in-home measurement.

In a showroom, test things the way you'd use them. Open the drawers and grip the pulls. Set the countertop sample beside the floor sample. Then ask yourself whether each choice would still work if your grip, eyesight or balance changed.

Kelly Santiago is the COO of Superior Stone & Cabinet in Phoenix, Arizona, though 'Chief Hat Wearer' may be the more accurate title. She works across operations, marketing, technology, customer experience, and remodeling projects, helping homeowners better understand the remodeling process and make confident decisions.