Are Baby Boomers Looking to Downsize?
Some want to age in place, facing concerns about being able to find and afford another place once they sell.
Despite conventional wisdom saying that downsizing should happen later in life after the kids have left the house, some Florida baby boomers are deciding to stay put in their homes. But that’s not necessarily the case with all baby boomers, experts said. Some of them are planning to stay in the homes where they raised their children, and areas where they put down roots. “With todays’ older Americans, we have seen that people just want to age in place. They have the doctors they like, their social circles.” Karan Kaul, principal research associate in the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.
Dennis Berger, a 74-year-old resident of Coral Springs, has been living in the same three-bedroom, two-bathroom house since he and his family moved down to South Florida from New York in 1988. He and his wife paid about $125,000 for the 1,800-square-foot home and raised two kids there, who now live nearby. Today, the house is paid off, and he believes he could get between $450,000-$500,000 for it, based on recent estimates he’s received from Zillow.
Despite the handsome profit, and their ability to downsize now that the kids are gone, he and his wife don’t plan on leaving. They’ve talked about it, but the math – and quality of life issues – just don’t add up. They live 20 minutes away from their son and daughter, and their grandchildren live in Fort Myers. The proximity to family is something that can’t be replaced, they say. Yes, they could move to a condo in the area, but many are priced too high in this hot market, and a retirement community would also be too expensive.
“We have a private swimming pool here, which my wife has been using for her physical therapy. And at our age, when you are packing up a house that you have been in for 34 years, what do you keep and what do you let go of?” he said.
A seller’s market but nowhere to go?
These days, more and more seniors are looking to downsize their homes in search of something more affordable and easier to maintain. Many seniors look around in their sixties, seventies, or beyond and realize that their house is too big, full of clutter, expensive to live in, tiring to take care of, or isolated. The solution to these problems is often to downsize by moving to a smaller home, moving in with a relative, or moving into a residential community designed for seniors.
Many sellers in general are wary of selling because not only do they feel that they have nowhere else to move, since inventory is so low in South Florida, they are also concerned about spending more money to get a home. Downsizing is often the best option for seniors who want to cut costs or have medical problems requiring constant care. Selling their homes could provide them with additional funds to cover their retirement and other medical expenses.
It also relieves them of managing a house, which can bring stress and risk of accidents. It's not just a smaller mortgage payment that downsizing can bring. It lowers utility costs, homeowner's insurance, maintenance, repairs, and taxes. The difference can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars each month to fund your retirement.
Seniors must understand the financial options to find a place best suited for their care needs and still allow them to maintain their monetary and physical well-being. PayingForSeniorCare.com has created online guides to help seniors understand the costs of an assisted living and home care facility and make an informed decision.
If baby boomers downsize, will it free up inventory?
Baby boomer own the largest share of real estate wealth in the U.S since 2001, according to a data analysis from the New York Times. “Baby boomers are living longer and are healthier than previous generations and it’s enabling them to stay longer in their homes, which is a good thing,” said Danielle Hale, economist with realtor.com.
Even if baby boomers downsized, it wouldn’t have much of an effect in helping cool down soaring prices in the real estate market, experts said.
“The issue is that we haven’t kept pace with population growth,” Kaul added. “At the end of the day, everyone needs a place to live. You don’t solve the problem unless you make more additional housing units, which is the core of the problem.”
Inventory levels in South Florida have plummeted, with about only a month’s worth of supply of homes in the tri-county area. A healthy market normally has about six months of supply, according to experts. And a Zillow report found that after decades of underbuilding, South Florida has a shortage of 142,650 homes if builders had kept up with the rate of population growth between 1985 and 2000.
Those factors play a part in both non-boomers scrambling to find homes, and baby boomers staying in the homes they currently own.
