For us, we just wanted to be done with a mortgage when H retired. We had refinanced so we were paying 5% interest but we just wanted our fixed costs as low as possible when our income decreased. We prepaid an extra $250 most months and sometimes more and we’re able to meet our goal.
It’s always hard to know exactly who may move into the neighborhood. We have a great neighborhood but sometimes a house or few are rented out. Some of the tenants are fabulous but others are not. When you have less space between living areas, it’s more irksome if those nearby don’t have common courtesy.
I’ve timed my retirement with payoff of my mortgage. My interest rate is close to 2% (refinanced to 10 yr) but I want peace of mind and no debt when I retire. I’ve leveraged debt enough pre-retirement.
We are ready to downsize our yard (2 acres) but not the house (3200sqft) as we use every square inch between work and hobbies and kids and company. Our community has grown and has a very different feel than the mellow suburb we moved to 25 years ago, and we would like a less congested and more serene (but not too remote) environment. Hubby will work for probably another 5 years, so we are constrained to a commutable distance (45 minutes maximum). We have identified a few developments meeting these constraints that also have low HOA and low taxes, going so far as to find which homes have good views and exposures so that if one comes on the market, we can pounce. Since we are not in a rush, we can be picky! We are giving some thought to moving out of the area eventually, but any place would have to be close to a great hospital (hope we don’t need, but…) and a major airport/Amtrak (to facilitate seeing family), in addition to having the right vibe and lower taxes. My dream would be to buy a very old house and renovate it (1850 federal in the center of a small town, like Doylestown PA or Lititz PA), but these communities have seen huge increases in cost of housing making it much less affordable than 5 years ago.
Yes I know the 150 is gone. My daughter is grieving! She loved the 150 and it was her daily community, The trolley stops more so the bus and trolley take about the same time. Progress if more people take the trolley!
Six weeks ago, my H and I sold our home of 33 years and bought a new home 700 miles away - a home that’s a 15-minute drive from our D, SIL, and toddler grandson. Three weeks ago, I retired on a Monday and we moved away the next day.
In other words, it’s been a whirlwind of real estate closings, saying good-byes to old friends, meeting new neighbors, decluttering, and packing/unpacking. So far, my misgivings about uprooting ourselves have been swamped by the joy I feel living so close to my D (our only child). For the past 13 years, she has lived at least five hours away (and for the past 6 years, it was an eleven-hour drive.) Words can’t express how thrilled I am to live close enough for weekly dinners and sleepovers with our GS.
In my experience, the pros have been:
The proximity to D - she and I have been friends as well as family for so long, and I have missed casual lunch dates and shopping trips. And I always wanted to be a lives-nearby-grandmother.
My new backyard - the new house has a lot of privacy and greenery, much more so than my old house. The new place is similar in size to the old place, so it’s not really downsizing (lateral-sizing?) H didn’t want a condo or apartment - he loves yard work - and my only requirement for a new place was its nearness to D. Yes, I know that sounds pitiful!
Cons:
The weather - we moved to MN from MI. I am NOT looking forward to the cold(er) weather! I joke that only an insane person would move some place colder for retirement.
The new house - well, it needs some work: new carpet, paint, higher-wattage light bulbs (were the preious owners vampires? Why are are all the light bulbs so dim?!) I overestimated my tolerance for fix-it projects, but luckily my H loves this kind of thing.
Expenses - moving isn’t cheap; the cost of the professional movers alone made me cringe. Luckily we sold our old home for a lot more than I thought we would.
Surprises:
Yes, I miss my old work friends and church friends - but not nearly as much as I thought I would. Maybe it’s partly because neither H nor I grew up in MI or had family close by. It would have been different if we were leaving family behind instead of moving closer. Of course, maybe it’s too soon to judge this, but no “homesickness” yet.
I am pretty much an introvert, but all of these new people and new experiences have been exhilarating, not terrifying. This could all change in time, but so far, so good. No complaints!
Happy for you, scout59! Thanks for sharing your analysis!
i think my biggest variable is the same as yours. The idea of moving closer to my son (and daughter, should she settle near my son and it looks like she might) - is far and away the thing that makes me happiest when I consider it all.
I’m a little earlier on the timeline, though, as son is not married with a child (although has gf). So we’d probably delay any permanent move in that direction and would have to be super-sure we’d like where son is (in the event he moves someday, which he could).
H and I did talk recently about the idea of renting in different places to try out:
Geographic location generally (which state)
Amount of space (would 1,200 be enough; does a deck/outdoor living change the equation?)
Urban vs. suburban (or even not-to-far from city rural)
Geographic location more specifically (which town in state)
(These factors are all tied to me having a portable job since I’d work for 5-7 more years but want to start transition/adventure sooner!).
It sounds like you’ll be very happy with the move since you have family there. When I was about 8 years old, my grandparents moved to our town …. oh, I still remember the excitement of that new!
Thanks ccreader!
We live in Texas and our only S, GS and DIL live in New York City (probably for the long term). I’m pretty sure NYC is not for us, although we love visiting! We are considering Santa Fe or Asheville in our search for a small, liberal city without weather extremes. So while we have narrowed it down, we don’t know for sure where we are going. We’re going to take a quick trip to both places after Christmas to see how we feel about each one during the winter and then make a decision probably in Feb. These will be our first plane trips since the pandemic began.
Our house is paid off and we are trying to decide whether to sell first or buy first (necessitating a short term mortgage like ccreader is getting) . My instinct is to buy first because I fear selling our house and then not being able to find what we want in our price range. But then selling first and renting while we look to get a better feel for the city makes rational sense.
Have been thinking about downsizing for awhile. Got as far as cleaning out the garage, taking a bunch of stuff to the dump (that was great!) Been procrastinating to start actually looking at housing alternatives. But, nothing lost as our home values keep on heading north. I’m sure that will end at some point but right now it’s pretty strong.
It was great having the extra room for my kids coming home for Thanksgiving. Also able to host a good size group.
At some point though, we’ll need to cash in on the equity and downsize. Just don’t need the room on a daily basis.
rickle1 - that’s what I think about too - do we need all the space on a daily basis?
I know a recent retiree who built a gorgeous big retirement house - with the express desire of having room for kids to come and stay. I get that & respect that - just don’t know if I’d want multiple extra bedrooms, bathrooms, mini-kitchen, etc. to achieve it.
A great idea to me would be a very little extra house on a property (like, 500 sq ft), so if anyone wanted to come and stay for a while (extended family, friend in need of a place to live) they could (with enough privacy for both to make it do-able as long as needed).
This was my husband’s feeling - he didn’t want to maintain extra space that we might need 3-4 times per year. Likely less if ds ever marries since we will then have to share.
Our situation is made somewhat easier since we only have one offspring. Do think about ages and stages of extended family who might visit when considering space/# of bedrooms, however. Until we upsized from 935 to 1,600 and added an extra bedroom, we really could only accommodate either a single or couple overnight. We had to outsource either mil or ds at Thanksgiving until we upsized.
Never really thought of that. Maybe a perfect solution would be for us to downsize but with a nice property where I can offer the in laws (and sometimes my kids) a tent in the back yard, fully equipped with sleeping bags and a blowup mattress, cooler, etc.
Actually my brother had a guest cottage on his property once. It was great. 1 bedroom/ full bath with a kitchenette and great room. Way nicer than any hotel suite and gave everyone plenty of space. My parents used to go for a few weeks at a time. Nice because they got to control the house temp, break away and go to bed at their preference without disrupting or being disrupted, watch their channels at night, etc.
The house my husband grew up in had a small cottage on it. His parents didn’t need the extra room and so they rented it and made some income. But when they sold, it was a big plus for the buyers because they moved a parent into that space.
I know a couple of people in Berkley California that have ADUs (accessory dwelling units). My BIL thought he might use it for Air B&Bing, but they liked the space so much they use it all the time. With Covid it’s been great as extra office or quarantining space.
My mother used one room of the “guest suite” as a sewing room when people weren’t visiting. It had a sofa bed. The other room was only just big enough for the bed, and a bureau. The bad architect (that would be me before kids!) barely left enough space for a portable crib.)
It’s very popular in my neighborhood to build an apartment over the detached garages. People use them for everything from rentals, to home offices, to mil or nanny suites.
This is an interesting thread. Also interesting how the title (for a first time reader) is downsizing, but in essence for many/most it’s also “relocating”.
I love @BunsenBurner term “right sizing” - downsizing shouldn’t be a given depending on where you started and where you want to be.
Not everyone here on CC has a McMansion!! Our current home - the main home we raised 3 children - is about 2100 sq feet. 4 beds, 1.5 baths (if you don’t count the bath in the basement- which I don’t!!), LR, DR, Kitchen, FR/Sunporch. We are looking for a new home in the same area now. I don’t really want a smaller house - I just want different options. Still need a minimum of 3 beds, 2 baths. Want and NEED at least 2 living spaces. Don’t care about a dining room but give me a spacious kitchen. Don’t need or want a lot of yard but give me outside living space (deck/patio, etc.) and top of our list, a water view. I suspect we will land on a similar square footage as now- maybe more - but, most all spaces usable and outside requirements a huge priority.
A goal will be also the ability to live on one floor (bedroom/laundry)for the future.
I love the thought of moving to a little different city location. But can’t imagine it for H, and my son is here and D’s are 2 hours away (for now). New digs will satisfy me. But not necessarily “downsized” because we were never really “upsized”!!!
Our current house is about 1600 sq ft. We would probably stay about the same if we moved, so no downsizing the living area. What we would downsize is our yard. We have about an acre plus a very long driveway that requires a lot of maintenance in the warm weather months, and a plow in the winter. We like the house but the yard is getting to be too much. We are strongly considering a condo with no outside maintenance.
We have debated on number of bedrooms. Originally we thought we needed three plus a space for an office. Now we are leaning toward two. It doesn’t make sense to us to go up from a two bedroom to a three bedroom just for the few times a year that both kids are visiting at the same. It would be much more cost effective to put one up in a nearby hotel and foot the bill for it.
Our current home - the main home we raised 3 children - is about 2100 sq feet. 4 beds, 1.5 baths (if you don’t count the bath in the basement- which I don’t!!), LR, DR, Kitchen, FR/Sunporch. We are looking for a new home in the same area now. I don’t really want a smaller house - I just want different options. Still need a minimum of 3 beds, 2 baths. Want and NEED at least 2 living spaces. Don’t care about a dining room but give me a spacious kitchen. Don’t need or want a lot of yard but give me outside living space (deck/patio, etc.) and top of our list, a water view. I suspect we will land on a similar square footage as now- maybe more - but, most all spaces usable and outside requirements a huge priority.