Topretirements members are much more mobile than typical retirees (moving, spouse, community)

[oldsoldier1976]

Okay I am a TopRetirements dot com member. It is a website that sends out newsletters via email with helpful hints and stories that deal with retirement. Today I got a newsletter from them with this
interesting article. It goes directly up our alley with moving or staying. In this story it is about a survey they took of members. It asked a number of questions and I will post them on here and the responses. Sorry for the scramble. It is hard to get stuff off some sites and repost.

http://www.topretirements.com/blog/r...JwtYYhdxURaAA4

Survey results show Topretirements members are much more mobile than typical retirees
In the survey we ran last week 48% of respondents “definitely” plan on moving to a different home for retirement. Asked about their intentions about selling the home they live in now, 68% have either already sold it or are definitely putting in the market. There was strong interest in moving out of state, where they hope to find a smaller home that offers lower maintenance and does not cost as much as their current one. These responses by Topretirements visitors are much different than what we see in the general population – you are much more interested in moving than other folks. For example, when we provided 10 choices to describe their future residential plans in retirement, the most frequent choice was to “move out of state”. This itch to move contrasts to a recent AARP survey, where 90% of people over 65 want to remain in their own homes and community as long as possible. In some ways these differences makes sense, as this website is all about providing resources to find the best places to retire; your community has a strong interest in moving.

Other results
Plans for retirement living
It’s clear – Topretirements visitors plan on finding greener pastures for retirement living. Only a small percentage plan on staying put. A small but significant number of folks intend to have 2 homes for retirement.
Definitely plan on moving 48%
Likely will move 20%
Not sure 13%
Likely will not move 4%
Definitely won’t move 1%

What about your pre-retirement home?
About three-quarters of respondents have sold their pre-retirement home, have it on the market, or are thinking about selling it. Of those who chose “other option”, many are considering renting it out or letting relatives stay there.
Have already sold it 20%
Have it on the market 8%
Thinking about selling it 47%
Definitely will stay here 2%
Probably will stay here 9%
Other option 14%

Is this a good time to sell your home
If you need any corroboration that the U.S. housing market is improving, just check out the optimism expressed in these survey results: 44% believe that it is either definitely or probably a good time to sell their homes. There was a significant number of folks who believe that the market might be better in a few years.
Definitely 16%
Probably 28%
Not sure 24%
Probably not 20%
Definitely not 7%

Do you think you will spend more or less on your retirement home than what you get (got) for your old home?
We were interested in these results, which show that a sizable portion of retirees plan on using some of the equity they realize from their existing homes to improve their retirement lifestyle. A much smaller percentage plans on spending more on a retirement home than the value of their existing home. Many of the people choosing Other say they intend the proceeds to rent, while others hope to retire debt. At least one unfortunate person commented: “what money, (with the mortgage) our house is underwater”.
Will spend less 46%
Will spend about the same 26%
Will spend more 15%
Other13%

What are your plans for your next home?
For this question people were permitted to make more than one choice from the list. This is how the various choices stacked up, with moving out of state and to a lower maintenance home topping the list. By a large margin Topretirements visitors are interested in moving to a smaller, less expensive, and lower maintenance home in a different state (our previous polls indicate that Sunbelt states are most popular for retirement).
Move to another state 26%
Lower maintenance 22%
Smaller 20%
Less expensive 15%
More expensive 3%
Nicer than current 6%
Larger 2%
Rental 5%

State of your downsizing
We wanted to see from this question how well our visitors and members are doing at downsizing. The answer – you are making a start at it, with 33% either having completed their downsizing or making good progress on it. There were 43 “Other” comments on this question, mostly having to do with “I wish I had started earlier” or “I am moving to a bigger home so don’t need to”. Some couples indicated that one spouse wants to downsize but the other doesn’t! But our favorite comment was: “Write plan now, setting month by month goals”.
Completed downsizing 14%
Good progress 19%
Made a start 34%
Haven’t started/no intention 31%

Moving plans
You are pretty definite on this question – most of you will hire a national or local mover, rather than do it yourself. Write in comments mentioned that many will either not have anything to move, or will move everything but the big stuff themselves.
Hire national moving company 41%
Local moving company 24%
Do it yourself 21%
Other 9%

How much stuff will you move?
It appears that most people will be moving a lot of stuff when they move to their new home for retirement. Many are undecided, saying that they want to know what they are moving to before they decide. Others are having a hard time deciding what to keep and what to toss.
Will move 50% or more - 41%
Less than 50% - 30%
Will move everything - 15%
Will move nothing - 11%

Concerns, expectations, and experiences with selling your home, downsizing, and moving.
Thanks to all 830 of you who were generous enough to share your insights and experiences on this question – the quality of the thoughts are amazing! Since we don’t have room to provide more than the briefest sample of those comments, here is a link to a selling-downsizing-moving-1, which we recommend reading. Ipad and Iphone users, you might want to Selling-Downsizing-Moving comments – Aug13-pdf (you will have to zoom in to read the small type). Of course we also invite you to comment at the bottom of this article too.
Here are some comments among the themes we asked about:
Selling your home
- Pick a realtor carefully, one with a track record in your neighborhood
- Unfortunately the market is stronger where we want to buy
- Used a staging agent and sold our house in 3 days!
Finding a new community
- You are giving this question a lot of thought, evaluating the type of home and community carefully
- Many people are having a hard time finding a new home they can afford and feel comfortable with
- Do your due diligence! Don’t trust what any builder tells you – inspect it yourself
- I wish I had rented first
- Finding a one story house in this area is difficult
Downsizing and getting rid of stuff
- This is a challenging process. It takes time, and couples don’t always agree. Children don’t always want what you thought they would. The emotional element is big
- Many people gave away many of their belongings to Goodwill and other charitable organizations, gave it to relatives, sold on ebay and craigslist, put it out on the street (where it disappeared quickly!), and the dump as last resort
- Put everything in 4 piles. And if you don’t wear it or use it in 12 months, out it goes
Moving
- Hate the thought of moving, but look forward to getting there
- Worried about the expense
- I used my local handyman and his crew to move me from Alexandria to Williamsburg, VA…trying to save money. Big mistake! More work and cost me about the same if not more. Find a reputable moving company and don’t cheap out!
Bottom line: Great job everyone – each and every one of your votes and comments is greatly appreciated!
Comments: Please share your comments about these topics below.
For further reference:
See previous survey results on the Best and Worst Things about Retirement, Buckets Lists, Retirement Housing Preferences, and more. This is a link to your suggestions about future article topics.

[Tek_Freek]

Some editing would make that a lot easier to read.

[akck]

I'm willing to bet that members of retirement forums are better situated because they've been planning their retirement for years. Being better situated allows them to be more mobile than the general retirement population.

[oldsoldier1976]

Originally Posted by akck

I'm willing to bet that members of retirement forums are better situated because they've been planning their retirement for years. Being better situated allows them to be more mobile than the general retirement population.

I absolutely agree with that statement. It would go to figure that if you had some sort of plan even incomplete as mine was that you are more apt to have the resources to be flexible and mobile if you are of a mind.

In my situation my wife is a transplant and so am I. My wife came from another country and I cam from a different state then we settled in.

[akck]

So I gather a move is part of your plan. For us, a move is built into the plan, but we aren't certain if there will be a move. My wife didn't like the idea of moving away from friends, but life happens and many friends have moved out of state. So now it's a choice of staying put (to avoid the moving hassles), or moving to be closer to family (unfortunately, they can still be mobile for work). We'll have a few years to think about it until we're both retired.

[Midpack]

FWIW, cutting & pasting an entire article is considered copyright infringement on most forums. Posts should instead include a link and "a snippet from the article" - not the entire article.

See city-data.com terms of service

Copyrighted Material - Instead of copying-and-pasting articles, photos, or other material you find on the Internet, you should be posting links to those articles. Posting a snippet from the article and then the link is the appropriate way to post.

[oldsoldier1976]

Originally Posted by Midpack

FWIW, cutting & pasting an entire article is considered copyright infringement on most forums. Posts should instead include a link and "a snippet from the article" - not the entire article.

See city-data.com terms of service

Point taken and duly noted.