Why or why not would you consider downsizing?

[Stratman50th]

Reading the responses I believe I misunderstood the question. While we did move into a smaller house, I understood the downsizing as it relates to stuff. In our case, the size of the house was a byproduct of us relocating.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have a very large 150 year old house, with 4 floors. We still have a disabled adult daughter at home but we spend a fortune on taxes, ma8ntenance, insurance, landscaping, etc. While we can afford it, we should downsize. Plus we have 22 stairs just to the second floor. And the kitchen is totally separate from our family room so I can’t see anyone when cooking, I want a 3 bedroom condo in our town, one story, elevator building with doorman and 24 hour security so our daughter can live there safely and comfortably once we are gone. I had convinced my husband to put it on the market but then we went to a couple showings for local condos. My husband could not fathom living in such small spaces, 1500 to 2000 square feet. And the minimum price is way over $700,000 in our area. within A day of being on the market we had a request for a showing. Needless to say it’s off the market again. I don’t know if I will ever get him out until I start crawling up the stairs.

 

[bakerworld]

We've only purchased 2 houses. Our first we bought with the idea that if we never could afford a larger house we could add on (which we did). Our second house we bought with the view that it would be our final destination, even though our kids at the time were 2, 6, and 9. It was a tight fit for 8 years and we still expanded a bit with lifting the roof and enclosing the back porch. The yard was never huge but it's big enough that we didn't feel the need to establish hard parameters with fencing (although our neighbors might've felt differently over the years through various dogs). We can walk to the store, church, restaurants, library, etc. I cannot imagine living in a smaller space.

 

[Sinder]

For us downsizing will come when dh retires. I would love to do it now but the housing market here is insane and although our house is paid off and we could sell it and make a huge profit it doesn't make sense to purchase something in the same area. Plus my young adult kids are still here (because of the insane rental market) and downsizing would mean they would have to find a place of their own. Right now I'm happy to have them here saving their money.
We do own alot of land up north that we are building a cabin on. When dh retires we will live there in the spring through fall. We are hoping to move south for the rest of the year and whatever home we have will definitely be smaller than this one. Time frame is 5 years but with inflation the way it is now we may have to wait 6 or 7.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I have 5 kids who still live at home (oldest not for that much longer) so we need our big house for now and when they leave I anticipate I’ll eventually have lots of grandkids so I’ll probably just keep the big house so they all can come stay if they want. I like to clean (I’m a freak lol) so I don’t mind the extra space.

 

[Darcy03231]

We downsized about 7.5 years ago. We had a large home (5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 3,900 s.f., 12 rooms) on three levels where we raised 6 children. Once the kids were out of the house, DH retired and we downsized to a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom, 2,400 s.f., 7 rooms, one level home. We can easily block of rooms and not heat them during the winter.

 

[HerRoyalHighness]

My husband will retire in 8 years...and when his division moves in a couple months it will be about 20 minutes from our house. We will stay here until at least his retirement, plus the kids should be finished with college at that point and maybe move to a different area. I keep saying we'll move somewhere in between them as long at it's not north...we're in Kentucky and the winters are about as cold as I can take.

When we bought this house in 2015, we were coming from a 2 story plus basement. This is a large ranch with a basement. We should be perfectly fine here for a while (ages 50/51).

 

[Travel60]

This is a big discussion in our home right now.

Have lived in primary home 37 years - 5 bedrooms, 3 and half baths, formal living, formal dining, family room, sun room, nice yard. It is in a great area but a very high tax state. We have redone most of it over the years but kitchen is about due for second makeover.

We also have a seasonal home on a mountain lake a couple of states away. Not built to be a primary home (closets are smallish, not a lot of storage) but could be. Kids/grands love it but it is a long drive so usually only a week in summer for them. We are there a lot.

We tried a 2 br condo in Florida for 6 years thinking we might sell the primary in the high tax state and split time between the other two. Six years proved Florida would not work for us. Sold it.

DS just married and they live about an hour from us in lower tax state. They keep encouraging us to move near them....sending pictures of homes, etc. I love the area ...historic small town but adjacent to larger city. Home would likely be older, historic, smaller.

Easter weekend, we had a full house....all kids, spouses, grandkids - some for 2 nights, sone for the whole week. Playing in finished basement and backyard, making cookies and brunch casseroles. We loved it! Afterwards, I asked DH if having that experience once or twice a year is worth keeping this house and he answered a resounding YES. We are 67 and 70. Will revisit in a few years, I guess, unless one of us becomes unable to deal with steps. All BR upstairs and no easy way to change that.

 

[ratherbeshiny]

This thread caught my eye, as DH and I have been talking about upsizing! Interesting read.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I was virtually alone for a few years in my family home while DH was away for work and the kids were in college and it was awful for me, I felt like a ghost wandering around so I definitely do not want a family size colonial as I age. On my own I used only 4 rooms, the kitchen, TV room, bedroom and bathroom and honestly I could have easily been happy in a decent sized studio, the empty bigness made me sad all the time so no thanks to that, I think smaller would feel cozy. On the other hand, 2020 taught me that it's important to have space that CAN accommodate everyone and since our kids are still with us as they save up to pay back student loans I now know that this will probably always be part of my concerns.

I had an Aunt who lived in what I think would be a perfect sized home for aging in place. It was a cottage with 2 bedrooms on the bottom floor where she used one as a sitting and hobby room and 2 dormer bedrooms at the top of a flight of stairs which could be rented out, used for storage or made to accommodate family that needs a place to land so this is my goal. I'd probably add more bathrooms that are wheelchair accessible with a roll in shower and a garage to that traditional style just so things are in order for the sorts of things that happen as people age, but I want cozy.

 

[Colleen27]

Downsizing isn't practical all of the time. I once lived in a neighborhood, where the zipcode had rules about the minimum size home that could be built. And it was still big. I couldn't buy a small house in that area because legally they couldn't be built. Now, I have to live in a bigger home than I want because the lot sizes are tiny for the smaller homes. I want a big enough back yard to play fetch with my dog. It really comes down to builders and laws making downsizing impossible.

That assumes being married to a particular community, though. In every area I'm familiar with there are cities/townships with and without those kinds of rules, so you can usually stay in the same area while getting out from under most of the minimums if you are willing to cast the net even a little bit wider than the specific subdivision or suburb you're already in.

My youngest graduates from high school next month. We have started to think about downsizing, but not seriously. I would like to stay here until the kids are "settled" in their own lives (not still in college, etc.) so that this still feels like "home" to them.

The parents of one of my college friends sold their house pretty much as soon as they dropped her off at the dorm freshman year. She said "going home" was never the same because their new place was never "home" for her. It was just visiting her parents.

That's an angle that didn't even cross my mind until my college junior brought it up. She thinks moving as soon as DD13 goes off to college would be an awful idea because she wouldn't have her familiar bedroom to come home to and, since we'd be looking about 50 miles from here, wouldn't get to have the kind of impromptu reunions that DD20 has with her friends when they're all home from their various universities for Christmas or summer. When I think on it, she definitely has a point. Our house has always been the house where the kids' friends gather and that's still true for DD20 when she's home on break. DD13 would probably appreciate the same continuity when she's off to college.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Downsizing isn't practical all of the time. I once lived in a neighborhood, where the zipcode had rules about the minimum size home that could be built. And it was still big. I couldn't buy a small house in that area because legally they couldn't be built. Now, I have to live in a bigger home than I want because the lot sizes are tiny for the smaller homes. I want a big enough back yard to play fetch with my dog. It really comes down to builders and laws making downsizing impossible.

What was the minimum square footage? And an entire zip code? Seems like that would be a small zip code with few homes.

I have a feeling your idea of big and my idea of big aren't the same.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In every area I'm familiar with there are cities/townships with and without those kinds of rules, so you can usually stay in the same area while getting out from under most of the minimums if you are willing to cast the net even a little bit wider than the specific subdivision or suburb you're already in.

I'm def. familiar with minimum square footages, I mean my neighborhood is one based on the type of home; reverse 1 1/2 has a minimum, 2 story and 1 1/2 story and the minimum for each type of those homes depends on which part of the neighborhood you live in (it's a graduated system between the 4 parts of the neighborhood). However I've personally never heard of an entire zip code.

In many cases the trend is actually the opposite where you have these smaller homes built decades ago and people want to tear it down (or add second stories if a ranch) to make them bigger homes. In those cases cities may have rules against that. One city is like that in my area because the allure is the style of home built decades ago. So the city has instituted rules on how big you can get. My husband's grandmother in STL had the same trend going on although I don't know if the city has implemented rules.

You're totally right in many cases you can specifically locate areas where you don't have to make a big house if you don't want it.

 

[OKW8297]

We downsized 6 weeks ago. Youngest child about to graduate college. We went from a house with in law apartment to a condo. We love it! Purged a lot !

 

[RamblingMad]

What was the minimum square footage? And an entire zip code? Seems like that would be a small zip code with few homes.

I have a feeling your idea of big and my idea of big aren't the same.

It was in GA. Minimum square footage was 2600 sqft.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It was in GA. Minimum square footage was 2600 sqft.

I suppose that's a YMMV but I don't find that to be all that big. Our house is 2,786 sq feet finished with 1,300 or so in the basement unfinished. While it's a decent size it's not a mansion to me.

Most of the time though in my neighborhood people who "downsize" aren't downsizing in size but rather floor plan. Like going from a 2 story to a reverse 1 1/2 to get the master on the first level to accommodate changes in life.

I'm still wondering about the zip code part as I haven't really heard of that. That's why I wondered the size of the zip code and the number of residents. There's a huge variance in number of residents in each zip code in my county from just over 1,000 to over 70,000. Big difference in impact for a minimum square footage requirement.

 

[AndreaDM]

We did the opposite, youngest went to college last fall and in Dec we moved into a big 100 year old home in a historic district. We LOVE the house and neighborhood. Yeah the 2 of us don’t NEED this much space but I like having different rooms to go to, plus its great for hosting all the kids/grandkids and out of town friends. However, after doing yard work all weekend I did think about how great condo living would be!

 

[evilmommie]

We didn't downsize, we reconfigured. Our current primary home is 3200 sq ft, 4 bd/3 br, 2 stories, great room, big kitchen, formal living & dining room blah blah blah. It's located in So Cal. PAID FOR.

A few years ago, we built a ranch house about the same sq ft, one level ( I'm so happy about this!!) in a remote area on several acres. 3 bedrooms; all ensuite, HUGE great room & kitchen. Built for entertaining and relaxing. It's where we are probably going to retire to in a few years. Now we enjoy it with family and friends as vacation.

 

[disykat]

Downsizing isn't a huge issue for us since we're in a single story 1750 sq ft home and we are pretty conscientious about minimizing our stuff. It was a reasonable size for a family of four and still a reasonable size as empty nesters. However, unless one of our kids moves back to our area we plan to sell and relocate to move into leveled senior living near one of our children around my 75th birthday. (I'm older than DH and my parents started decades of dementia issues at 75 and 82. DH's parents passed away young at 73 and 75. Along with our parent's health issues we've had two properties to deal with that weren't minimal - his parents had large outbuildings full of stuff!) Hopefully we will be able to get settled and enjoy our new living situation as independent residents, not patients, but we want to be prepared and make things easier on our kids.

 

[goofyernmost]

I downsized two/three times! Once after my divorce when I moved from a three bedroom ranch that we had lived in and raised our children in for over 25 years. I couldn't stand the emptiness of the place so I sold it, split the revenue with my X. She took almost nothing with her when she left, so I had 25 years of accumulated things to get rid of because I moved into a mobile home that I bought. That served me well until I retired and moved into a two bedroom apartment 1000 miles away. I had to semi finish downsizing for that move which consisted of mostly things like large commercial tools, lawn equipment, show blowers, gas grills, upright freezer and misc. junk and then, ten years later, I was able to move again and finished downsizing once I knew what stuff I hadn't even looked at over those 10 years. Mostly hand tools that I miss a little, but have no place to store. I still have access to them but have no real need anymore. I gave most of them to one of my sons in law.