Proposals for senior housing projects have been busting out all over in the Twin Cities. But are there too many?

A study by Minneapolis-based Everest Real Estate Advisors says that most of the demand over the next decade will be for senior housing with services, including assisted-living units and those in memory care facilities. With the region's population of people 75 and older projected to grow to 182,000 by 2020, the group says that at least 620 new units will need to be built every year over the next decade to satisfy demand.

This year alone, 625 will hit the market. At the current rate of construction, that's not happening. Historically, only 550 units per year have been built. And while developers have proposed building thousands of new units, EREA's senior vice president, Marsha Goff, says that an untold number of those units won't get built either because they can't get required equity, financing or proper approvals.

Construction of senior-only buildings that don't have services has come to a virtual standstill because so many of the people who would buy or rent units in those buildings need to sell the house they already own to make the move. That part of the market won't improve until the for sale housing market recovers.