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we eventually sold the pa house when we decided not to retire there . we may buy a 2 bedroom 2 bath co-op next year right down the block . that is fine for us . i don't want the maintenance and headaches that go with a house anymore .
This is a well documented socioeconomic problem. The more affluent you are, the more likely you are to have a longer life expectancy and the more likely you are to have behaviors that keep you healthy.
I don't understand; you say this as if it were a bad thing.
It is a good thing. It is not a problem of affluence, it is a feature.
We raised our family in a 5300 sf 4 bedroom home with an 1800sf garage/shop on a couple acres. We designed the home with an architect and had it custom built.
In retirement, we "downsized" to a custom 7500 sf 3 bedroom home with an 1100sf garage. We designed the home with an architect, incorporating many custom features, and had it custom built. If we had to do it over again, we would probably have gone up to 8500 sf 3 bedroom with an 1600 sf garage/shop. Yes, we use every room & every square foot - it is our lifestyle, which of course is unique to us.
Our vacation home is 3800 sf 4 bedroom home -- and we'll probably upsize & design & build a custom home in the 6K sf range, as that suits our lifestyle.
Many pre-retirees plan on relocating to a home where the master bedroom is downstairs, or where the entire house is on a single floor. We prefer the multi-story homes, as they give us more exercise - we go up & down the stairs quite a bit and that helps with muscle tone and conditioning. We "future proofed" by installing an elevator designed to accept a wheelchair with the legs extended. We do use the elevator every now and then; in fact, our 18 year old cat will go to the elevator door & let us know he wants a ride.
I was struck by your comment that you have observed many people "in failing health going into their 60's", which seems strange to me. Is this an area with a high incidence of smoking? Perhaps an area with a couch potato culture? In a general sense, when I think of an age at which it would be normal to have lots of people in "failing health", I think more in terms of going into their 80's.
Unfortunately a lot of people in the "Old South" are in failing health in their 60s. Bad diet and not much exercise. Or maybe I should say that what they eat would agree with a very active lifestyle like cutting pulpwood for a living, but the amount of exercise they get would agree with a mostly vegetarian diet with severely restricted calories.
We raised our family in a 5300 sf 4 bedroom home with an 1800sf garage/shop on a couple acres. We designed the home with an architect and had it custom built.
In retirement, we "downsized" to a custom 7500 sf 3 bedroom home with an 1100sf garage. We designed the home with an architect, incorporating many custom features, and had it custom built. If we had to do it over again, we would probably have gone up to 8500 sf 3 bedroom with an 1600 sf garage/shop. Yes, we use every room & every square foot - it is our lifestyle, which of course is unique to us.
Our vacation home is 3800 sf 4 bedroom home -- and we'll probably upsize & design & build a custom home in the 6K sf range, as that suits our lifestyle.
Many pre-retirees plan on relocating to a home where the master bedroom is downstairs, or where the entire house is on a single floor. We prefer the multi-story homes, as they give us more exercise - we go up & down the stairs quite a bit and that helps with muscle tone and conditioning. We "future proofed" by installing an elevator designed to accept a wheelchair with the legs extended. We do use the elevator every now and then; in fact, our 18 year old cat will go to the elevator door & let us know he wants a ride.
Certainly...if can afford to buy and the upkeep for TWO large homes and can also have a "just in case" elevator I'd not worry about much else...where is the home gym for even more exercise?
Certainly...if can afford to buy and the upkeep for TWO large homes and can also have a "just in case" elevator I'd not worry about much else...where is the home gym for even more exercise?
An elevator is only about $50K.
Yes, we have a home gym. And a home theater set to host sports viewing events - several screens, and the main screen can be fed through a video processor so it is segmented into 4 smaller screens, each with its own game on.
We have a dining room large enough to comfortably seat 16 (custom furniture).
We do like to entertain; 3 or 4 times a year we throw a party for a hundred or so guests, or host a fundraiser for our favorite charity, so we have ample cooking & prep space for the catering staff, and full bar setup for the bartenders both upstairs and downstairs.
We have a 3400 square foot home we purchased after I retired, and don't mind the extra space at all. It lets us "spread out", we haven't had to dump off any of our stuff, and when we have company there is plenty of room to stay here.
Sounds nice. It's too bad that Sacramento is not part of the Proposition 90 "transfer of tax basis" counties.
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?
I Bought my retirement home about 18 months ago for what I hope to be an early retirement. Going from 4009sf to 2360sf. There are somethings I will miss but others I will not like the property taxes. At the moment I still own both.
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. At the moment I still own both.
