According to the 2020 Census, one in six Americans is aged 65 or older, which is about 55.8 million people, just under 17 percent of the U.S. population. As Americans age, they want to consider all of their options for settling in a place that will provide an active lifestyle and adequate medical care.
In partnership with global research firm Statista, Newsweek has compiled a ranking of the 300 best continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), long-term options for residents typically aged 55 and older who can transition from independent living into higher levels of care, including assisted living, skilled nursing care or memory care, all at the same campus.
Newsweek's list of America's Best Continuing Care Retirement Communities 2025 includes the top 300 CCRCs across 25 states to help our readers make an informed decision about the next steps for them or their loved ones.
This ranking draws on two national online surveys of both medical professionals and residents and their acquaintances as well as an analysis of key quality dimensions, accreditations, visitor satisfaction and online reviews.
At the top of the list for the second year in a row is HumanGood – Valle Verde in Santa Barbara, California, with a score of 93.05 percent. Even though its ranking stayed the same, its overall score improved due to better professional recommendations and resident ratings.
The rest of the top 10 CCRCs include facilities from Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Minnesota and North Carolina.
These are the top 10 continuing care retirement communities in the U.S. and their overall scores, according to Newsweek:
- HumanGood – Valle Verde in Santa Barbara, California: 93.05%
- Willow Valley Communities in Willow Street, Pennsylvania: 92.09%
- Freedom Pointe at The Villages in The Villages, Florida: 91.34%
- Moorings Park in Naples, Florida: 90.33%
- Lifespace Communities – Friendship Village of Bloomington in Bloomington, Minnesota: 89.27%
- Roland Park Place in Baltimore, Maryland: 89.12%
- Blue Skies of Texas in San Antonio, Texas: 88.18%
- Givens Estates in Asheville, North Carolina: 87.14%
- Edgemere in Dallas, Texas: 86.23%
- Covenant Living of Florida in Plantation, Florida: 85.70%
Willow Valley Communities moved up one spot from last year's ranking to land at the No. 2 overall position for the 2025 list. It also increased its total score, jumping over 3 percentage points from 88.88 percent in 2024.
"I don't design for seniors; I design for people. And that's one of the differentiators for us," CEO and President John Swanson told Newsweek. "That's one of the things that has allowed us to operate and develop outside of the traditional CCRC box and allows us to innovate and have the organizational courage to do things that are not in conformance with traditional industry wisdom."
This includes building multistory townhouses in the late 1990s and building a new, state-of-the-art memory care facility modeled on a facility in Denmark.
"We're always looking forward as an organization from a continuous improvement perspective or from a perspective of innovation," he said. "A lot of that is informed by the feedback we get from residents."
According to Chief Marketing Officer Helen Foster, Willow Valley Communities is not just about care, but hospitality.
"The level of innovation and hospitality is critically important to us," she said.
"[Residents] can enjoy a community that has amenities that are akin to resort quality."
She adds that Willow Valley offers a range of different care options at various price points that not only assure a great lifestyle for residents but also provide peace of mind for their families.
And when family members of all ages visit, Willow Valley Communities has amenities for everyone. A bowling alley, ice cream parlor and splash pool all encourage intergenerational play between residents and their families.
Foster told Newsweek that Willow Valley is a Type-A Lifecare facility, where residents can move from independent living to nursing or assisted living without their monthly fee increasing, she said.
"The assurance of life care allows residents to plan for their care needs and enjoy a high quality of life without worrying about future care costs," she said.
According to Statista, one area driving ratings improvements was professional recommendations and resident ratings. Many of the top CCRCs also had great online reviews that boosted their scores from last year.
Up five spots to No. 8, Givens Estates is the top CCRC in North Carolina. The facility boosted its total score by about 6 percentage points by improving its quality dimension rating from residents and acquaintances and maintaining a high professional recommendation score.
"Asheville, North Carolina, is a great place to live, a great place to retire, and I believe Givens Estates is a very real contributor to everything that factors into the quality of life of this region," Geoffrey Cantrell, the director of public relations for Givens Estates, told Newsweek in an emailed statement. "Our residents are engaged, whether as volunteers or civic leaders, willingly involved in community life and campus living."
Over the past year, Cantrell said Givens Estates has updated its programs and services after developing a new set of core values and assessing the overall happiness and satisfaction of residents and staff.
"Givens Estates residents speak up, ask questions and are involved in the direction of campus, with genuine interest in making improvements for everyone to benefit by," he said. "It is their leadership with a receptive staff that makes a difference."
The CCRC also improved its planning, preparedness and communication channel to ensure it can face any challenge, which Cantrell said has already proven successful.
This year's ranking expanded the pool of CCRCs to include five more U.S. states— Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia and New Jersey—and included new data sources from Google reviews and a visitor satisfaction rating from Accushield.
Each CCRC's total score includes a reputation score (70 percent), visitor satisfaction score (15 percent), an accreditation score (10 percent) and a Google review score (5 percent).
The reputation score comes from the recommendation from medical professionals and from residents and their friends and family. From August to September of this year, a national survey was sent out to medical professionals, including nurses, therapists and physicians as well as CCRC staff. Participants gave recommendations of CCRCs in their state that were weighed by order and professional experience.
The other survey sent to CCRC residents and their families and friends asked participants to name and rate CCRCs they had lived in or visited in the last three years on a scale from 1 (would not recommend) to 10 (would strongly recommend).
Residents and their acquaintances were also asked to assess the facilities they are familiar with by ranking several quality dimensions, selected based on research into the offerings and amenities of each CCRC. From most to least important, participants ranked quality dimensions including room accommodations, cleanliness, commercial services, number and quality of activities, affordability and value, food, overall medical care, safety and staffing.
The accreditation scores come from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities data that evaluates the accreditation status of each CCRC and reflects its adherence to high standards of care. The CARF accreditation score covers a broad spectrum of care options, including adult day services, assisted living, long-term care communities and independent senior living. CARF offers specialized accreditation programs for dementia, palliative and end-of-life care, and also evaluates nonclinical aspects of a CCRC, including food quality, menu variety, room service and restaurant offerings.
For the visitor satisfaction score, Accushield's Reputation Accelerator™ gauges visitor satisfaction and offers insights into the experiences of relatives and acquaintances of residents. CCRCs that do not have an Accushield visitor score were evaluated based on a scoring model that only included reputation, accreditation and Google review scores.
Most of the top CCRCs improved their scores from the previous ranking, and a few made their debut in the top 10, including Blues Skies of Texas, Roland Park Place and Covenant Living of Florida.
At Covenant Living of Florida, Executive Director Karen Harris said residents get "the best of both worlds." The Life Connect program emphasizes eight areas of wellness— spiritual, emotional, relational, physical, intellectual, vocational, environmental and financial. Harris said this allows residents to maintain their hobbies on and off campus while meeting new people and finding new passions—from playing music to gardening to attending the opera.
Covenant Living of Florida jumped up eight spots from last year to round out this year's top 10.
Building community, Harris said, is the most important benefit of living in a CCRC. She said people often decide to move into Covenant Living of Florida because they live themselves and are extremely lonely. Living in a community where people not only live and have fun together but look out for each other is essential to boosting the quality of life for residents.
Recently, Covenant Living started a chaplain-led program called Good Grief Support, which not only helps with personal loss but also the grief moving into different care levels of the CCRC. This program gives residents the opportunity to connect and bond with each other as they integrate into their new situation.
"It has made such an impact on the residents," Harris said. "There is nothing like being able to transition and have somebody who understands you because they are transitioning as well. That's how community is formed."
Whether you or a loved one are thinking about the next steps in their care, Newsweek's ranking of America's Best Continuing Care Retirement Communities provides a robust report of the nation's best options so that everyone finds the right fit.
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