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Or maybe you were a late-in-life buyer? Not one size profile fits all. And, a lot of retirees fairly well-off CHOOSE to carry a mortgage and invest elsewhere.
Perhaps not mentioned here is that it may not be a mortgage that throws retirees overboard, but the associated costs of home-owning which in and of themselves can equal or exceed the cost of a rental. Even those with paid-off mortgages lose their homes due to these associated costs they cannot meet. Namely property tax, which in many states is growing out of sight, and house insurance, which depending on where you live can be expensive. These wild cards may find many more retiree homeowners in straits in coming years, and in many if not most cases they cannot be blamed (though there are those who will want to...blame).
What places are there where monthly taxes are say $1,000 (Long Island, New Jersey, etc) and rentals are less than that? The owners of a rental unit have to pay those same crazy high taxes and that's going to be reflected in the rent. Plus taxes don't go up overnight - a retiree living in that area is paying about the same amount before retirement and should know what their retirement income will be and whether or not it will cover that amount. I have family members in both of those very high tax areas, and when they retired, they sold their homes and moved to a lower cost area so they didn't have to keep paying those taxes. So while I understand it may not be ideal, if you know your monthly income isn't going to meet your monthly obligations, you need to do something about it.
This is really the truth. I just saved one relative from this, and am about to save another.
The 33 acres we bought in Maine (for cash) was to be for our retirement home, and we built one (literally, ourselves) of 1120 sq ft. The property is not near any power lines, so we invested in a solar array to provide basic power. We have hot and cold running water, and everything that we need. With the new small ranch, the taxes are $800 per year (you read that right), and the land has everything that we wanted.
Just before building the ranch, my wife's brother, a single man who was a carpenter by trade, had to sell his home in Rhode Island to pay off medical bills from bypass surgery. He didn't owe much on it, but the taxes he was paying were crazy - $6,000 per year. He was fortunate that he was able to repair it himself, but in the end, the house had to go. He got out of it with a small profit. He had nowhere to go, so he moved in with us (we were also living in RI then), and came up to Maine to help us build the little ranch.
While up here, he found a single-wide trailer for free - some of you have read about this - and ended up towing it to the back of our property. He gutted the whole thing and built an amazing structure that looks like a regular house. This guy is one talented carpenter! He now has a cost-free home for life. There is no electricity, but he uses other means to light it. He uses our laundry machines, and has his own generator.
I also have a brother. He was living in Braintree MA, another high-tax place. He recently sold his home there, and made nada on the sale. He owed money on it...BUT, he did not have to pay rent. He came up and stayed in a camper that we also have on our property. He now has all of his retirement income to spend on building materials, and we are going to add...another cabin on our land! We will all be working on it.
I think it is important to have a basic place that you own outright, and can always depend on having there for you to stay, if worse comes to worse. This business of "ours for us and yours for you" is not something that can always be afforded in retirement. A little cooperation can free up TONS of cash income. We recently took advantage of this: we all went in on a small vacation property in Tennessee. We can go down there singly or together...and oh, the taxes are really low down there, too!
That will be OK until you and your wife die or have to sell the place to finance a move to assisted living.
Refi to play and vaca ? Refi $200,000 in CC debt? MORONS!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider
Anyone following the traditional life pattern of just paying on the mortgage until it's paid off will not be part of the subset of seniors who "are being buried by housing debt". The couple in your example refinanced "partly to pay down credit-card debt", which is incredibly stupid. How did they develop excessive credit-card debt in the first place? In all likelihood by being totally undisciplined in their spending. No sympathy for them here; they made their bed so now they must lie in it. On what grounds are they fighting foreclosure in court, I wonder? If you stop paying on your mortgage, well then sure you will be foreclosed on. What did they expect?
Your pegging my BS Meter again.. and your B.I.L. isnt that good because no one paid him much or he would have had medical Insurance and savings and the house would have been paid for.. Your Pegging my meter ... and then your retireeing in MAINE off the grid hahaahaa dreamer.. Yea off the grid at 70 and unable to do any of the things you need to be able top do to survive.. like maybe drive to town in the winter hahahaha
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah
This is really the truth. I just saved one relative from this, and am about to save another.
The 33 acres we bought in Maine (for cash) was to be for our retirement home, and we built one (literally, ourselves) of 1120 sq ft. The property is not near any power lines, so we invested in a solar array to provide basic power. We have hot and cold running water, and everything that we need. With the new small ranch, the taxes are $800 per year (you read that right), and the land has everything that we wanted..
Just before building the ranch, my wife's brother, a single man who was a carpenter by trade, had to sell his home in Rhode Island to pay off medical bills from bypass surgery. He didn't owe much on it, but the taxes he was paying were crazy - $6,000 per year. He was fortunate that he was able to repair it himself, but in the end, the house had to go. He got out of it with a small profit. He had nowhere to go, so he moved in with us (we were also living in RI then), and came up to Maine to help us build the little ranch.
While up here, he found a single-wide trailer for free - some of you have read about this - and ended up towing it to the back of our property. He gutted the whole thing and built an amazing structure that looks like a regular house. This guy is one talented carpenter! He now has a cost-free home for life. There is no electricity, but he uses other means to light it. He uses our laundry machines, and has his own generator.
I also have a brother. He was living in Braintree MA, another high-tax place. He recently sold his home there, and made nada on the sale. He owed money on it...BUT, he did not have to pay rent. He came up and stayed in a camper that we also have on our property. He now has all of his retirement income to spend on building materials, and we are going to add...another cabin on our land! We will all be working on it.
I think it is important to have a basic place that you own outright, and can always depend on having there for you to stay, if worse comes to worse. This business of "ours for us and yours for you" is not something that can always be afforded in retirement. A little cooperation can free up TONS of cash income. We recently took advantage of this: we all went in on a small vacation property in Tennessee. We can go down there singly or together...and oh, the taxes are really low down there, too!
NEgirl. You're exactly right on. It used to be that people thought that once you paid off the house, you were set for life for a place to live. But the cost of keeping the lights on etc. has gone through the roof over the years. Our house is paid for, but it still costs us with internet, phone, elec. nat. gas, sewer, garbage, wastewater, taxes, cable and insurance about $10,000 a year. We looked at that for our retirement years and decided we had to cut that down a ton. And that doesn't include any money for repairs and upkeep. We've figured out a way to do, and live the way we want, but subdivision, suburban living is no longer in the plans. Too expensive for folks on a fixed income in retirement.
Freedom to decide is sweet and this a great country .
??? How do involuntary renters have freedom to decide?
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