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Six years ago I bought a 2550 sq ft. house which then sat empty till we retired last Oct. I moved from the 700 sq ft house I raised my five children in.
I bought a large house, it is 3 stories plus full basement and two car garage, for a reason. I expected to have some of my children move with me when we retired, knowing we would need help and care.
My youngest son and his family, plus my oldest son moved with us, plus we have a unrelated family mom dad and baby that were friends of my son and moved down here thinking they had an apt, but that did not work out. so they have been staying with us . anyway I now have ten people living here. So good thing I got the big house.
BTW folks today can't really downsize in retirement as much as they are having kids later in life and kids are moving home after college due to high college costs.
I am moving next year to a different state in a new job. My two oldest about to start college and my youngest will be ten so young enough to adjust. I also need the bigger house as my kids will be home during summer and winter breaks, will be hosting friends, kids move home after college.
I will be 67 when my youngest graduates college. If my youngest moves back home after college by then the two oldest may be getting engaged of having first kids. I will be in my 70s hosting engagement parties, doing weddings, doing thanksgiving. Pretty much by 80 I can downsize.
I was in Florida a few months back and a retirement type HOA all had 4,000 to 5,000 square foot houses. Todays grandparents may be first generation even when they are richer than their children.
I live alone and went from 2,700 sq. ft. to 1,600 sq. ft. (after I added an office space). Storage space is limited since I was used to a basement but now the house is on a slab foundation. My garage has accumulated a bunch of stuff but I can still park my car and truck in it. I have an unheated storage shed with garden tools and other things. I have two covered outdoor "portals" and spend a lot of time outside -- this is mild climate high desert -- so that effectively expands my living space a little. The lot is 1.3 acres, much larger than anything I owned before and I could get by with half of that but I maintain only a fraction and leave the rest to wildlife.
Everybody has their own space requirements. My father-in-law lived in a retirement hotel - one room - for fifteen years and was very happy. I think this is the right size for me at this time. I have a guest room and some space that doesn't get a lot of use so I could maybe get by with less. I recently went on a trip and stayed in a small, one bedroom condo (tiny kitchen/dining room/living room, bedroom and bathroom). It was OK for a few days but too cramped for any longer term.
Downsizing was the best thing I ever did! My old house was 2 story, 1ac lot(on a hill of course), and a triple driveway. Beautiful because it was waterfront but way too much work. It was in Minnesota and you just haven't lived till you are treated to shoveling a triple driveway! Especially the 2 tons of ice at the end that was deposited by the snowplow! And it was in the middle of no where so there was nothing to do.
The house I have now is 1500sf in Las Vegas. No yard work, just rocks and cactus. And no shoveling. 2br, 2 ba, 2 car and a pool! Perfect for me!
We had our house built about 12-13 years ago and now with only 1 kid still at home full time it is a little big at 3300 sq ft. But we've already decided to stay put in retirement. For one thing, we had it built with everything we wanted. Wrap around porch, large deck with grill. top of the line kitchen etc. We have room for company.
That's just the house. The other part is we are in an ideal location. Every house in the development is on close to 1.5 acres. Riding mower is great, the landscaping has matured and it's like a park in the backyard. We're on a cul-de-sac so traffic is limited to the families on our road. No worries about pulling out in to traffic or walking around. We have great views of the Catskills to the west and the Taconics to the east. But we're only 2-3 minutes in to town.
If moving in to a smaller house means giving up the location and convenience I'd rather deal with a bigger house and be happy where we are.
I'm in 992 square feet of completely remodeled space on one level. For one person, it was fine. For two people, there isn't anywhere to escape. I'm going to have to put a shed in the back yard, get the junk and the boats out of the detached garage, and turn the back 8' x 12' section of the garage into an office/studio.
I live alone and went from 2,700 sq. ft. to 1,600 sq. ft. (after I added an office space). Storage space is limited since I was used to a basement but now the house is on a slab foundation. My garage has accumulated a bunch of stuff but I can still park my car and truck in it. I have an unheated storage shed with garden tools and other things. I have two covered outdoor "portals" and spend a lot of time outside -- this is mild climate high desert -- so that effectively expands my living space a little. The lot is 1.3 acres, much larger than anything I owned before and I could get by with half of that but I maintain only a fraction and leave the rest to wildlife.
Everybody has their own space requirements. My father-in-law lived in a retirement hotel - one room - for fifteen years and was very happy. I think this is the right size for me at this time. I have a guest room and some space that doesn't get a lot of use so I could maybe get by with less. I recently went on a trip and stayed in a small, one bedroom condo (tiny kitchen/dining room/living room, bedroom and bathroom). It was OK for a few days but too cramped for any longer term.
I lived in a in 200 square foot apartment for 4 years. I actually had parties, guests and even did a BBQ on fire escape. Unusual thing was building had 12 units all same size. So in 2,400 square feet 12 sets of people lived and we had some folks with roomates and or married. And a few with dogs or cats.
Hard to imagine around 20 people and around ten pets in 2,400 square feet. And we had one single washer/dryer in lobby that was a stacked unit in a closet.
I'm back in small town Tennessee and it's a different world than the affluent Indiana suburb I resided in. Back here with my parents generation, there seems to be a lot of priority placed on having a large home on a large lot, no matter how practical that actually is for the owners.
Over the last few months I've been back, I've noticed that most of these ~60 year old couples have way too much house! Many raised their kids in the homes they still live in, with many rooms of those large homes sitting mostly unused. They're still trying to care for these homes - often in failing health going into their 60s and those without failing health often carp on about wanting to downsize, but no serious effort is made to do it. These people are going to own far, far more house than they can reasonably take care of as they age, and many have been unwilling to consider downsizing so far!
Do you own too much house? Can you reasonably take care of what you have? If not, do you have plans to downsize? What are you downsizing from and to?
My in-laws are in their late seventies and can run circles around their peers. I'm absolutely certain my MIL will break the century mark! So I don't begrudge them their big house. They're doing just fine taking care of it and have enough money to hire help when needed. As for me, I always preferred small homes; I'd be happy living in a shoebox. I think the best thing is to focus on your own needs and wants and right-size your life accordingly.
I'm just 41 but honestly, I don't think we'll downsize from our 3700 sq ft. home when we retire. Why? Because simply put we like the house. Despite its size, it has a very cozy traditional floorplan with defined rooms and a master on main. I'd install a chair lift to go upstairs if mobility becomes an issue. We also like our large backyard. I don't want to live in small spaces ever again.
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