Too much house! Did you plan appropriately going into retirement? (divorce, divorced)
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I guess one additional factor when considering "too much house" is "how much land". Proximity to neighbors/noise/privacy and related things. We always lived in high rise apartments/condos when we were working. And found our neighbors were a PITA in terms of those things. Nothing like neighbors having a Sunday late night party on top of you when you have to wake up at 6 am on Monday .
I'm not sure it's better in retirement communities. My father is stone deaf and likes to go around his townhouse without his hearing aids - playing his TV at top volume. Luckily - his girlfriend lives in the unit next door - and his new neighbors on the other side are feeble/demented. Otherwise - I don't know how they could stand the noise (I can't even hear him talking on the phone when I call him up - that's how loud the TV is).
We aren't that far away from our neighbors. But they're relatively quiet. And far enough away. At least for us. No one on top of us. And no shared walls. Robyn
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.
But with you being in Sacramento, your HVAC load is very small. You can just about leave the windows open year-round.
I do know older people who are heating and A/C 3, 4K ft3, for no obvious useful purpose. It's their money and if they want to spend it on utilities that's up to them. I do see a lot of this in the Old South.
It looks like many who want to keep the extra space (and bedrooms) anticipate lots of visitors.
Of course around the holidays that's expected....but other than a couple weeks at the end of the year, has anyone found they don't have nearly as much "company" ( or at least visitors that actually stay with them) as originally anticipated? In other words, was it more wishful thinking on your part that the kids and friends would visit or has it panned out to the degree expected?
3600, 5 bed, 1/2 acre.
We did not anticipate how often our kids will visit and now the number is expanding with grandkids, girlfriend, pets.
We like the space. Looking at condos makes me depressed. The good ones are more than what we can sell our's for.
If we move we will still get a house but perhaps all at one level. We mostly pay to get things done like yard, improvements. But no major remodels like putting in central air. We make do with window AC. In the beginning of retirement I was obsessed with downsizing but my spouse was not into it so much. Now I am more relaxed and enjoy the space.
It is hard to pick a size but I think most people in the over 55 communities cut down a little too much.
Your life style might change from your working lifestyle. You might need more space for entertaining. Also you will probably need more storage space so think about a large garage or maybe an extra room. Think about how you will use each room, hobby room, TV watching, dining etc.
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?
There is a cost consideration to doing this if the concept is to just reduce the size of the home you live in. If you have/had gotten a fixed-rate 30 year mortgage many years ago, but the time it is paid off, the monthly amount you've been paying it very little compared to the costs of a new mortgage or rent. So people have to do the math, because selling your home less the price of real estate commissions, can end up leaving you with a new mortgage costing you more per month. I'm personally planning to get help cleaning the house when needed in retirement than selling it to just get a smaller place. We already use a service to take care of the lawn and we will most certainly continue to keep that in retirement as well.
Or are we talking about just feeling the house is too big? Because if the expenses are being met to take care of everything with hired help when needed, it doesn't bother me to have empty bedrooms. I do notice many people when they go to retire looking for a new place that has one-floor living to avoid the stairs.
BellaDL: I have seen a bunch of those houses you mention about 30 minutes outside of Raleigh and Durham NC.
NC is not our target retirement location. However, out of my curiosity, I searched zillow for homes in Raleigh and Durham to see if there are any which fit our criteria. There was none in both places. When I removed the max bedroom number, I found a single one in Durham with 4 Bedrooms instead of our 3 Bedrooms target.
When I removed the min year of 2000, I got 2 in Raleigh, one built in 1959 and one in 1995!!
Initially, we were searching for single story home but had to remove the criteria in order to expand the possibilities.
Although we list 1A being the 'minimum', we would prefer 5A or more and the lot has to be wooded for privacy. Newer homes are usually built on flat and barren lot divided from previous farm land!
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?
Are you personally acquainted with all of them so that you know they are wasting space? Seems to me that's their choice. Maybe they have future plans you don't know about.
We built 2600 sq ft. 4 bed, 3 bath, wooded location. Need space for when kids, grand kids visit.
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