Downsizing the family home

[CdnCarrie]

With an empty nest and retirement looming in a few short years I’m thinking about downsizing eventually. Lots of my cohorts have or are talking about it.

Did you downsize? Was it a difficult decision?
Are you happy where you are now?

 

[Meriweather]

No...we didn't. We like our space and the grand kids are over a lot.

We love our house and DD has already put a claim to it when we are no longer here
I don't want a small house. We like all our things!
Lots of Disney stuff and DH has a lot of things in the second garage (that's his shop)

 

[Christine]

No experience here. I always thought I would downsize but no matter how small I get, I don't think I can live as cheaply as I do in the house I have right now.

 

[Travel60]

I haven't downsized - most of the time our 5 br, 3 1/2 ba house holds just the 2 of us. I think about it. Especially since my house has seldom-used formal LR and formal DR.

But. Both our kids moved away but within driving distance. Four or five times a year the house is full and happy with kids and grands. For now, that is worth it.

When we downsized my in-laws years ago, DD was moving into her first apartment so she got some furniture. DS was in college and got plates, pots, pans. BIL and DH took what they wanted and we either donated or trashed the rest. The hardest was an old player piano. We tried so hard to give it away, even called the manufacturer. But in the end, 1-800-Got Junk came and threw it in the back of a truck.

 

[focusondisney]

We retired 2 years ago & aren’t downsizing our home because we never upsized. We’ve been in our 1600 sq ft house 41 years & raised our 2 kids here. About 30 years ago, my friends were moving to larger new builds & I briefly considered it too. A brand new kitchen & 2 car garage would have been nice. But I saw how quickly my kids were growing up & knew they’d be gone in no time. I didn’t want to be stuck cleaning a big house as I got older either. We’ve made a lot of updates so everything is fresh & comfortable. The only issue is it’s a 2 story. I’ve looked at patio homes in the area..new builds are 2-300K more than our house is worth. Not spending that much in retirement. Anything affordable looks outdated compared to our current updated home. So if the stairs get to be an issue, we’ll put in a stair lift.

We live in a suburban development, centrally located to shopping, restaurants & our medical providers. Homes in the development are nicely kept up, the town is very good with trash, plowing, recreation & road maintenance. Our neighbors are wonderful. And good neighbors make life very pleasant. That’s another reason we don’t want to move… who knows what kind of neighbors we’d end up with.

So we intend to stay in this house. I don’t want to burden my kids with cleaning out a lot of junk like my siblings & I had to do at our parents home. So I am trying to downsize “stuff”.

 

[LoveDaisy]

We are starting to talk about retirement. I think we will move but not necessarily to a smaller house. We would like something with a bedroom on the main floor so we don’t have to worry about stairs as we age. We would also like to be on the water. We will not move now, I live 2 miles from my parents and want to be close if they need anything.

 

[NannyBeBe]

We have not downsized and do not plan to. We signed a TOD deed so that our daughter will automatically own the house when we pass on and will not have to go through probate.

 

[disykat]

We really have no NEED to downsize at this point since our house is less than 1800 sq ft and is single level. However, our kids don't live in easy commute range. We have set a goal for ourselves to be "ready" to move by the time I turn 75 in case we need to move near one of the kids for practical purposes. We are decluttering, etc. to make things easier when/if that time comes. I like the idea of selling then and renting somewhere near a beach for a few years before settling near one of the kids, but DH is 5 years younger and probably won't want to give up our house yet at that point..

My parents always said they'd be willing to move near one of us, but by the time it came it felt too hard and they dug their heels in. I spent 5+ years living between two states trying to care for them, had to retire early to do so, etc. We don't want to do that to our children.

Eventually, we'd like to live in a senior leveled care living situation - preferably in an independent apartment, but with help nearby if we need it and the ability to move into leveled care easily as needed. We envision having moved into that type of situation by the time I'm 80 and DH is 75 if we haven't done it yet. Having dealt with my parents AND in-law's homes and properties, we want to have everything scaled down to make things easier for the kids. DH's parents needed a lot of help already in their 70's and mine did in their 80's and into their 90's so we're preparing with those possibilities in mind.

By the time my mom passed, Dad had passed and she had moved near me and I had already emptied, cleaned up, and sold their home. Experiencing her passing that way was so much less traumatic for me as their primary caretaker. I already had photos digitized, etc. and had made the basic decisions of where stuff would go. She was 93, so it wasn't exactly a surprise that she was going to die someday. At some point you have to be practical. We want to be practical early and set ourselves (and our kids) up for an easier transition.

 

[tvguy]

No, because we know too many people who did and regretted it*.

And the idea of paying over $30,000 in real estate commissions and fees to get LESS house seems stupid.
We bought our house as our forever house. 1,754 square feet, 3 bedrooms 2 baths. Bought it 42 years ago. Kind of out grew it, and looked at getting a bigger house, 30 years ago. But again, looking at the crazy cost of real estate commissions, we added on a bedroom laundry room, and half bath bringing the house up to 4 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths and 2010 square feet for a quarter of the cost of selling and buying a bigger house.



*An example. Some friends sold their home of 28 years three years ago. Replacement home was toooo small, so after a year they moved again to a bigger house, that is still about half the size of their original home.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I don’t want to burden my children selling a 2000 sq foot home that we lived in for 40 years. It’s not fair to them. Been there, done that.

And it would be nice not to deal with yard stuff.

For example sell our house for $650,000 get a nice 1000 square foot condo for $250,000.

Have $350,000 in the bank after realtor and legal fees.

I’m not one for “stuff” and won’t burden my kids with a house of junk.

 

[Disneylover99]

Nope. No plans to downsize.
I want a place where my kids can continue to live or stay at for visits if their jobs take them far from us.

 

[HannaBelle]

We plan to retire in 2033, DH will 100% retire, I will mostly retire. My younger brother and own a small business together, I will definitely cut back significantly but won’t leave him completely hire and dry.

We routinely have our kids, our niece, and SIL for over night visits. I don’t want to give that up.

 

[disneychrista]

I don't expect to "downsize." I am currently in a 3 bed 1 bath 1070 aq ft home. So there really isn't anything to downsize to.

 

[bcwife76]

My DH plans to retire in 2031 and yes we are downsizing but we are also planning on moving to a different area. We are currently in a 2600sqft house over three floors and we want a large condo or smaller townhouse. The area we are looking to move to has a lot of real estate that would work for us.

 

[TCRAIG]

My house is 3300+ sq ft - but it’s paid for and I really like it - nice neighborhood, nice yard, big 2 car garage, primary on the first floor, big rooms, 9 walk in closets with a walk in attic, etc. so, while I may move to be closer to family - I won’t necessarily downsize…
And if I decide to sell and move, I’ll still wait to see if congress changes the laws related to capital gains taxes on the sale of a primary residence…