My husband is just a few short years away from retiring, and we're living in the only home we've ever owned. I don't think this is the norm these days, to only ever own one home for the duration of one's working years. Many folks are prompted to move when their family grows in size or when employment is offered in another city. Of course, my little family rented for the first 8 years of our marriage. So it's not like we've only ever lived in this house. Still, we've owned this one for almost 30 years. Consumer data indicates that the average length of homeownership is just under 12 years. So, yes, we've been in our one and only owned home for way longer than average.
I was thinking about this just this morning. My husband and I had been looking at properties in another area the last six months. One particular property had many of the features that we hoped to find. In fact, I'd been checking on this home several times per week, seeing if they'd lowered their price or if the home had been sold. Well, yesterday they accepted an offer and this house is now a pending sale. While I had a moment or two of sadness that this would not be our next home, I also began to think that God had put us in a good home that would meet the needs we reasonably expect for the rest of our lives.
Our house is a two-story, but it also has a full bath and two bedrooms on the ground floor. All needs are on this main living floor, including access to a deck and laundry. There is a single step up to the front door where a ramp could be placed, if need be. An aging couple could live easily in this house.
Back in 2016 we had some work done on our house, and in talking to the contractor, he said that his own house was his forever home. He had retrofitted everything needed for aging in place for himself and his wife. Then he joked that the only way he'd ever leave that house was feet-first (meaning carried out of the house to his final resting place).
So here we are, still in the only house we've ever owned, and I'm contemplating all of the positives of staying here. For one thing, making a move is expensive. The actual moving costs, the taxes and fees when buying and selling properties, and the needed improvements for the next property all add up.
The cost to move across the country average about $5000. Between capital gains taxes (after the exclusion) and real estate transfer taxes, we'd be on the hook for another $15,000 to $20,000. (Property transfer taxes are significantly higher than average in the Seattle area.) Even in a near-perfect new house, there would be several thousand dollars in upgrades that we'd want to make right away, from new carpeting to new interior paint. This could be $10,000 or more.
By not buying the other house, we've likely saved ourselves $30,000 to $35,000, and I feel like I've been extremely conservative in these estimates. That's a substantial chunk of change.
In addition to the savings in dollars, if we stay in this home, we avoid the hassle of moving everything and the pain of leaving behind friends and community.
This was never in our plans, but I'm now thinking this could very well be our forever home.
We have lived in four different houses, in three different cities. We moved into our current house 8 years ago. This is our age-in-place house with one story living which we didn't have in our previous house. We saw how important that was as we watched our parents age in houses where stairs were necessary. We made the move sooner rather than later so we would have control over the situation. We considered different locations, but decided to stay in the area where we have family, even though we could have found lower taxes and cost of living elsewhere. We are fortunate that we could afford that and are very happy here. BTW, I hate moving. It's a real pain and expensive, but necessary at times. But every major life change takes work and adjustment and moving is no exception. It's lucky that your fall back option of staying in your house will work since you already have one-story living in place. There's a lot to consider. Good luck with it all.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteYour number of houses is probably close to average in the US. My sister and her husband are on their third and my brother and his wife are on their fourth. My parents owned four houses before my mother's passing.
I really don't like the thought of moving an entire house full of belongings. I've never moved that much stuff before. We have accumulated rooms full of furniture over 30 years, as you could imagine.
My clinical self was checking all the "yes" boxes to your aging-in-place home, and I think you have hit everything on the nose. And you are right--moving costs money. We are in the only home we've ever owned. It's a very modest house but it has met our needs through the years and hopefully it will continue to do so. You aren't alone in having your starter home be your "finisher" home. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have company in the category of one-and-only homeownership, Kris. It does make life simpler to not have to do all the stuff related to moving. I hope your house works well for you and your husband through the years.
DeleteWe had a starter home for five years but jobs forced a relocation. We stayed in that home for 22 years and raised and educated our children there. We then moved closer to family once my husband retired and so we could go back to being closer to family. We are glad we did because elderly parents and their health and even death along with a brother in a major car accident and two sister in laws dying and now two elderly parents later, we are glad we are "back home". But we now ended up in a small "starter home" which might be our "ending home" unless we can't do the yardwork anymore. We did too much work on this house to say goodbye only to do the same stuff in a condo. We will stay here for a while.
ReplyDeleteHI Alice,
DeleteYou and your family have suffered a lot of loss. I'm glad you could live near family during these years.
I know what you mean about not being able to keep up with yard work. My husband have thought about ways we could simplify the landscape so there would be minimal yard work. It would take some work upfront, now while we're able. But it would lessen work needed in our less able years.
I'm jumping into this late, but I suggest you determine just how many major repairs the house might need during your retirement. Will you need a new roof? Water heater? Windows, etc. I know of a couple who had to sell their older home because it needed more work than their retirement income could cover.
DeleteThose are really good concerns. I'm sorry to hear about the older couple you know. My husband and I have been going through our list of what needs to be done to our current home. We've been slowly upgrading/replacing major elements of our house for the entire time we've owned the house. This would be a great topic to explore in another post. Thanks for bringing this up.
Delete