Escapevelocity
Dryer sheet aficionado
I'm 54, married with 3 kids (age 20, 21, 25) and will be retiring in 6 months.
We currently live in a medium cost of living suburb of Philly in South Jersey. The suburb requires driving to everything although it is convenient/close to most things once in the car. We own our 4BR split level home outright currently valued around $430k. Annual property tax is $11.5k, homeowners is $1.2k and utilities around $4k for a total cash outlay of around $17k or $1400 per month. We do our own yard work and cleaning and basic upkeep. No major renovations needed or planned in the next few years.
We'd like to sell the house in about two years once the 20 and 21 year old are finished college and hopefully have jobs and out of the house (crossing fingers). Our preference is to stay reasonably close (within an hour or so) of our current area while in-laws are still alive since they might require our help. We'd like to rent and ideally to be in a walkable town. We're thinking 2 BR and 1.5 or 2 BA.
The problem is that anything appealing based on our wish list is in the range of $3k per month give or take. We want something fairly modern and attractive. This is more than 2X our current cash outlay to stay in our current house. I thought downsizing was supposed to free up cash not drain it!
I suppose if the money from the house is invested at our 60/40 allocation it would earn a return approx the cost delta. We could buy a condo or townhouse instead of renting, but the purchase price will be close or maybe more than our current house is worth and then we need to pay a maintenance cost or HOA fee! Any advice?
We currently live in a medium cost of living suburb of Philly in South Jersey. The suburb requires driving to everything although it is convenient/close to most things once in the car. We own our 4BR split level home outright currently valued around $430k. Annual property tax is $11.5k, homeowners is $1.2k and utilities around $4k for a total cash outlay of around $17k or $1400 per month. We do our own yard work and cleaning and basic upkeep. No major renovations needed or planned in the next few years.
We'd like to sell the house in about two years once the 20 and 21 year old are finished college and hopefully have jobs and out of the house (crossing fingers). Our preference is to stay reasonably close (within an hour or so) of our current area while in-laws are still alive since they might require our help. We'd like to rent and ideally to be in a walkable town. We're thinking 2 BR and 1.5 or 2 BA.
The problem is that anything appealing based on our wish list is in the range of $3k per month give or take. We want something fairly modern and attractive. This is more than 2X our current cash outlay to stay in our current house. I thought downsizing was supposed to free up cash not drain it!
I suppose if the money from the house is invested at our 60/40 allocation it would earn a return approx the cost delta. We could buy a condo or townhouse instead of renting, but the purchase price will be close or maybe more than our current house is worth and then we need to pay a maintenance cost or HOA fee! Any advice?