CENTENNIAL, Colo. – The American suburbs, which sprung up to accommodate GIs returning from World War II and their families, has undergone a dramatic shift in the age of its residents. In 1950, 7.4% of residents in suburban neighborhoods were age 65 and older. Fast-forward more than 60 years to 2014 and that number is 14.5%, Stateline/PBS Newshour reports. Add to those numbers 75.4 million baby boomers entering their senior years and wanting to stay in their homes, and the face of suburbia will change even more.

According to recent research by The NPD Group, boomers consume ready-to-eat snack food 20% more often than millennials do—a total of 90.4 billion ready-to-eat snack instances each year—making the group is an essential c-store demographic.

Part of the problem will be the car-centricity of these neighborhoods, coupled with multilevel houses and limited sidewalks. “Most [boomers] are in a state of denial about what really is possible and what’s reasonable for them as they age,” said John Feather, a gerontologist and the CEO of Grantmakers in Aging.

State and local officials are not prepared to meet more demand for affordable housing, long-term care and transportation that will become necessary for boomers in suburbia. Some experts also point to potential conflict between families with school-age kids and seniors over how to spend increasingly small government funds.

“The graying of suburbia is going to become the central challenge of the country and the suburbs,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. “Most suburbs are not ready. They don’t have the resources, experience or ability to deal with these big issues.”

For more about how to market to boomers and their loyalty tendencies, read “Golden Age” from a recent issue of NACS Magazine.