Yahoo Finance Housing Market 2024: 4 Tips for Retirees Looking to Buy or Rent This Year
The housing market has been quite difficult lately, namely because of high mortgage rates, high home prices and low inventory, further putting pressure on said prices. As for homeowners, many are waiting to sell their homes because they feel “locked in” the mortgage rate they secured a few years ago — and they don’t want to end up with a rate that’s double what they originally had.
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Against this backdrop, for retirees, this landscape can be even more complicated for a slew of reasons and navigating this tricky housing market can be overwhelming. But there are options.
Downsizing
This might make sense for retirees as children are grown-up and that’s a great way to save money.
And as financial guru and host Dave Ramsey said, while it might initially feel like a step-down, “a closer look reveals quite a few upsides.”
Indeed, this translates into a boost to retirement savings, lower maintenance fees, and lower utility bills — a few advantages.
Moving in a Retirement-Friendly Community
These can offer several amenities and services that cater to older adults’ unique needs and desires, as Reside Real Estate explained in an article.
They also have several housing options, from single-family homes to apartments. In addition, they also boast amenities such as fitness centers, community centers, and on-site healthcare facilities.
Creating a Mmultigenerational Home
According to Reside Real Estate, one in five Americans live in a multigenerational situation.
Reside Real Estate added that these can entail children and grandchildren moving into the parents’ family home, parents moving in with the children, or everyone buying a new home together.
As these combine incomes and resources, and financial considerations like “it can reduce costs per family unit and provide built-in and at-home care for both grandparents and grandchildren,” according to the article.
Relocating
Finally, for retirees who can, relocating to a less expensive city or region might be a wise financial move.
A Vanguard study found, for instance, that for people who relocate upon retirement, about 60% move to somewhere less expensive, typically unlocking about $100,000 of equity from a home they may have purchased decades earlier.
“It’s a big deal,” Kevin Khang, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors, said in a press release. “It plays a very big role and, in some cases, the only role in people’s ability to have a secure retirement.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Housing Market 2024: 4 Tips for Retirees Looking to Buy or Rent This Year
