<p>No plan to downgrade. H&I don't plan to retire until another 10 years.</p>
<p>Our youngest is a college freshman. We will definitely stay here until he finishes. The house is paid for but will need some renovations before we sell it.. We had planned for Dh to retire a little earlier but the stock market has changed that plan.</p>
<p>We have a lot in another part of the state that we plan to build on as soon as it seems financially feasible. We look at houseplans constantly.</p>
<p>We've lost all our equity, so selling in the short-term isn't going to be possible. We had planned to sell and use equity to move when baby goes to college eight years hence, but I don't think that will be possible. Hubby will be able to retire then at 55 with a very generous pension and lifetime medical/dental/prescription benefits. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate retiring, so the tentative plan is that he will retire and move where his tax-free pension will stretch farthest and I'll stay here.</p>
<p>We should have sold about 3 years ago. Started the process, but then all of a sudden many family members needed shelter, and we had several crisis situations. By the time we could take a breath, the market was tumbling. Still should have put the house on the market, but just did not do it. Now we are in a big expensive house with just 2 kids at home. This area is too expensive for us to retire. If the market rebounds a bit, we'll try to sell for something smaller and less expensive. H does not intend to retire until our youngest is out of college. If things go well, maybe get a small apartment in NYC and retire on the Delaware shore or Maryland shore for the most part.</p>
<p>We have tons of equity in our home but have no plans to move. The house has kept its value, if realtor reports are to be believed. It's 3 bedrooms & 2 baths and about 1350 square feet, so it feels fine with just H & me & also when the kids are home. My folks have a 5 bedroom, 3 bath home that is huge & that's one of the places we gather with the extended family. They live about a 5-minute drive away. Most of my sibs also live within a 15-minute drive except one brother who is about 45-minutes away.</p>
<p>One of my friends bought a 2 story home and rents out rooms in the bottom story to increase her income. She & her Down's Syndrome son live in the top floor (which has a full kitchen). She rents to 4 students who live on the bottom floor, which has its own living room and another full kitchen). It has worked welll for her. Another friend found her home "big" after her S joined the military & her D went for a year abroad. She accepts exchange students and is paid a stipend for each. It has worked well for her & them. These are some things to consider, if the home "feels too big" and you might like more cash in your account.</p>
<p>Same as OP here, we have lived in our current house for 5 years. We had this house built at the height at the housing boom, so we are ok with equity for now. I figure we will be here another 5 years or so. Our house is also too big for just my H, the pets and I. Our S is a sophmore, so a lot of our decision will be determined by where he ends up after school.</p>
<p>Our original plan was to sell when D graduated from high school and move to a nearby state that does not tax pensions and has lower taxes. We have an elderly relative living with us now and would not want to uproot her so we will stay. Every time we mention selling, our D (a college soph) gets weepy as this is only home she has ever known.</p>
<p>We have a very large house and will be empty nesters next fall. We plan on rattling around in the house for quite a while! It is important to me to have a place for family to gather. H wants to find a warm weather retirement place but I can't seem to focus on the end result. Don't want to be far from the girls but don't know where they will be in the future. H says lets just find a place where they'll want to vacation so he is looking in the Carolinas and Florida. He is of the opinion that now is the time to buy!</p>
<p>No plans to retire. But economy might retire us despite our unwillingness, especially now that I heard about plans to raise taxes to deal with deficit. No plans to sell house in any case. We are paying taxes + utilities and no way will live as comfortably in a smaller place. Real estate taxes are horrendous, I agree.</p>
<p>We planned to sell and move by now when the youngest was a sophmore in college. Freshman year they come to see friends and visit HS. After that they have moved on so it is not so important. Since we never planned to stay we never worreid about paying down the mortgage and refinanced several times for lower rates. Now it looks like we will be here for quite a while longer and it would have been better to do other things with the mortgage. Oh well. We are not in financial trouble. Just paying longer that we would have. And as for empty nest...the third boomerang is home.</p>
<p>Through no fault of our own, we never upsized. House started out at just under 1000 sq. ft and we added 400. With one out and the 2nd about to go, we're finding it roomy and economical to run. I have dreams of turning it over to the kids (we're in an area where people vacation) and joining the peace corps in about 10 years when H and I can retire. It's small enough that we could look on it as a storage unit with perks.</p>
<p>I'm curious about the Texas taxes mentioned by a couple posters. How bad are they? We're paying $6,000 a year here in the northeast - far less than most of our neighbors, but then we have less house.</p>
<p>Yes, we are happy that mortgage is paid off. However, if jobs are lost, it is still very possible to lose a house when you cannot pay real estate taxes. Then it becomes property of county, instead of bank's. it is still scary. Then what you do?</p>
<p>Our situation is almost the same as WIS75. DH really wants to retire and we have a decent retirement portfolio (although it was better). Health insurance is our big issue. DD is the last of two and our house is WAY too big for us. We had originally planned to move as soon as DD graduated from HS to somewhere warmer because DH has neurological problem that makes cold weather very difficult for him (and it gets worse as you age). Our house is fully paid for and while I'm sure it's lost some value from its peak it has a very woodsy feeling while being in suburbia (the deer love to eat our gardens) and should actually sell fairly easily (we are the third owner and it was never on the market more than a week). </p>
<p>We are currently in the on hold stage trying to figure out what's next with the economy being so bad can we risk DH just quitting.</p>
<p>We pay $9000/year in taxes and consider them low relative to the rest of the county!</p>
<p>Texas property taxes substitute for no state personal income tax. I seem to recall that last year it was just under $2,000 per $100,000 in value of the land and improvements.</p>
<p>Property taxes are a big issue around here. Ours are 4k per year. If we were to sell and buy something smaller in the same area our property taxes would likely double.</p>
<p>"We pay $9000/year in taxes and consider them low relative to the rest of the county! "</p>
<p>We pay around $6000/year in real estate taxes and consider them very high relative to the rest of the country. It is much higher than in NYC (according to S who owns appartment there).</p>
<p>We need to state these taxes in a ratio to assessed value to be able to get any idea where the taxes are "high."</p>
<p>In our city real estate taxes (rates) vary substantially depending on school district. $6000 / year on $250k home (which is much higher than current market value, but we will never win apeal, so we decided not even try). It is the second highest rate here, with the highest being much higher.</p>
<p>Possibly consider renting out your fully-paid-for home & renting a place where you'd rather live? This should give you more options & flexibililty in figuring out where you will live & what the economy will finally do. Another option is renting out some rooms to help increase cash flow & give you more funds to do whatever you decide to.</p>
<p>Health insurance is a huge issue for many and something definitely worth considering, especially as we age. I'm pretty much uninsurable and am grateful that H's employer (fed govt) will keep me insured as a spouse, even after he retires. I am concerned that my kids are able to get good health insurance, as they have some chronic health problems, including asthma & can't afford to have pre-existing conditions excluded. They are dropped from our policy as soon as they turn 22. We can pay extra for them to get continuing coverage, but it is expensive.</p>