Time to buy a new home??

The Real Estate market has been clearly in a “buyers” market for over a year. This means that it is a very good time to be buying a home. As seniors, we typically don’t think about actively looking for a reason to buy a new home; however, there are many circumstances that can make it attractive, maybe even necessary, to buy a new home and relocate. And now might be the time.

Although surveys show that most seniors want to stay in the home that they have lived in for many years, there are some very practical reasons to make a change.

LOCATION: Although a long distance from family might have been no problem in the past, as we age it can become more important to be close to family. This could mean more frequent visits, and maybe even some level of required caregiving. Or, convenient access to services and easy transportation could be more important now that we can't easily drive all over town anytime we want.

HOME SIZE: That large 4 bedroom home where we raised our children might be just too much for us now. Maintenance could be too costly now that we need to hire a handyman to do the work; that second story might be inaccessible because of the difficult stairs; maybe retrofitting to make it more useable by the elderly isn’t possible.

CAREGIVING: Now that we need almost full time caregiving, maybe a duplex, with “next door” availability of our primary caregiver, is the best solution.

INCOME: All of the asset equity in the home that we bought 30 years ago is not generating income for us as our expenses increase. Selling this home and investing the net proceeds in a safe, income producing asset could solve our current cash flow problems.

With the high level of available housing inventory, this might be the very best time to find a much more appropriate house to fit our needs today, and maybe in a better location.

Tom Binder
Seniors Real Estate Specialist

Is now the time to sell your home??

I was talking to an 84 year old client and she has decided that it is not prudent for her to continue to live alone in her current house which is way too big for her now. She asked if she should consider selling her home of 35 years in the current housing market. As with many questions, the first answer is often “It depends”.

1)Timing: If she is going to definitely move within the next 2-3 years, now is probably as good a time to sell as anytime soon. Nobody knows what the housing market will do in the near term future, but there isn’t a lot of hope for a positive change soon. And with prices in most areas declining, selling sooner would seem better than selling later.
2)Equity: Since she has owned her house for many years, she probably has a significant amount of equity built up in her home. Three years ago, home equity seemed to be a great place to hold your assets. But that isn’t true now and a good financial planner could assist her in taking the proceeds from selling her home and investing in much safer income-producing assets.
3)New home: And where she intends to live after selling her home will affect her decision. If she wants to downsize to a smaller, single story, ground level condo, then she needs to also work on the issues of buying a new place, and now is a great time to do that. But if she is planning to move into a Senior Community, then financial stability and investment cash flow numbers need to be worked out.

And things like capital gains tax and tax base transfer all need to be considered.

Let me know if you have any related questions about selling your home.

Tom