Poll: Did You Retire in your Most Expensive Home?

[Fedup]

It’s not a dream home for us because we spend a lot of time travelling. My previous neighbor who’s a doctor sold his house because his wife said they spent a lot of time on cruise, originally they bought it back from their daughter and SIL, both doctors who wanted more space after the birth of their their child. So in retirement try to plan for that too.

 

[W2R]

Somehow I keep coming back to this thread and re-reading Midpack's original post. Midpack, you said,

We’re planning on relocating and buying a “forever home” that’ll cost significantly more inflation adjusted than any house we’ve ever owned, about 160% of our current homes valuation. Property taxes and general expenses will go up about the same.

I’m still having a tough time with it

Are you getting cold feet? You know, there is no law that says you can't change your plans if they just don't feel right to you.

Frank changed his mind about moving to Springfield, back in 2011. Before then he never seemed to have a problem with it. We spent hours and hours working out details of the move, and vacationed there at least a dozen times to check out neighborhoods and various aspects of Springfield living. We were both 150% onboard with the idea of moving. But when he got an offer on his house here, he just couldn't bring himself to sell it. He also couldn't articulate exactly why except that he had an intuition that we shouldn't move. Intuition? from an lifetime engineer? That just "didn't compute".

For me, this was totally out of left field and I was completely, utterly floored. I never expected it in a million years, and I think his decision surprised him as much as it surprised me. However it occurred to me that I'd rather live anywhere near Frank, than any other choice. So, my reaction was pretty much, "AAAARGH!!!! …. OK." Staying here turned out to be the right decision for us.

I'm telling you this in order to suggest you might think about it. You could delay or cancel the move if it doesn't feel right for some reason and that might be perfectly OK.

 

[Katsmeow]

We have owned a more expensive home. That house was 4600 SF, on almost 3 acres with a guest house, pool and 2 garages. It made sense at the time as we had 6 people living there and my mom often visited and used the guest house.

Now, we are in 2300 SF home (with a pool) and it is just us and it is on .3 acres. So, no, it is less expensive and is better for our current needs and desires.

That said -- this house is more expensive than the house we owned before this one. It was about 3000 SF (we still had 2 kids at home when we moved in) and was on an acre. But, this house has a much, much, much better location and the price reflected that. We paid $40k more for this house than the house we sold. We wanted the better location.

 

[Midpack]

Are you getting cold feet? You know, there is no law that says you can't change your plans if they just don't feel right to you.

Frank changed his mind about moving to Springfield, back in 2011. Before then he never seemed to have a problem with it. We spent hours and hours working out details of the move, and vacationed there at least a dozen times to check out neighborhoods and various aspects of Springfield living. We were both 150% onboard with the idea of moving. But when he got an offer on his house here, he just couldn't bring himself to sell it. He also couldn't articulate exactly why except that he had an intuition that we shouldn't move. Intuition? from an lifetime engineer? That just "didn't compute".

For me, this was totally out of left field and I was completely, utterly floored. I never expected it in a million years, and I think his decision surprised him as much as it surprised me. However it occurred to me that I'd rather live anywhere near Frank, than any other choice. So, my reaction was pretty much, "AAAARGH!!!! …. OK." Staying here turned out to be the right decision for us.

I'm telling you this in order to suggest you might think about it. You could delay or cancel the move if it doesn't feel right for some reason and that might be perfectly OK.

Interesting post, thanks for sharing. Believe it or not I remember being mildly surprised you didn’t move to Springfield after you mentioned it many times.

I think MichaelB quickly identified my real issue, “With this purchase are you still comfortably safe, or does that move you from "safe" to "safe-ish"? One aspect of the "perfect" house is you sleep well at night.” After all these years I couldn’t define exactly what’s “safe” and “safish.” The academic answer is we’d still be way safe, but that’s doesn’t necessarily let one sleep easy - at least at the outset of retirement.

You can never be too rich, too thin or too safe with retirement income decumulation.

OTOH I was uncomfortable with the price of all three houses we’ve bought, though lenders would strongly disagree. And ultimately each one turned into a screaming bargain. I suspect that’ll happen with our more expensive forever home too.

DW wins again, as usual...

Thanks all, many thoughtful insights, exactly what forums are for.

 

[jollystomper]

I cannot see ourselves getting a larger/more expensive home than our current dream one. We do not wanted to spend additional time maintaining anything larger (house or land). Our next home, if any, will be downsizing to a lower cost area and smaller house.

 

[Teacher Terry]

For the people that noted the size of their homes I am surprised at how many empty nesters have such large houses. No way do I want that much space to clean.

 

[W2R]

For the people that noted the size of their homes I am surprised at how many empty nesters have such large houses. No way do I want that much space to clean.

+1 Me, either. My house is 1500 sf and even so, there are two rooms that I just don't use except to collect dust. I would probably be just as happy in 800-1200 sf.

Some people say they need tons of space for visitors, but I sure don't. Honestly I don't have many visitors other than my DD and DSIL, and it isn't a giant problem for them to stay at a nice nearby hotel or motel (from either their viewpoint or mine).

 

[aja8888]

For the people that noted the size of their homes I am surprised at how many empty nesters have such large houses. No way do I want that much space to clean.

Same here. We are happy with 1,976 square feet on one level. We downsized to this 3.5 years ago and got rid of the two story. Price-wise, it was a wash, but this house is set up for retirees, especially those in later years.

No need for stairs and the master bedroom up.

I only wish the garage was larger and the back yard smaller and full of rocks.

At this stage of our lives, we are not envying people with big houses and lots of bills. This house is the most efficient place we have ever lived and it's size is manageable. Actually, we could easily get by with a 1,500 - 1,600 square foot house.

 

[Midpack]

Our current home is 2300 sqft, with two rooms we never use (living & dining rooms), but it has a full basement. I think I could be happy with less than 1800 sqft. The homes we’ve looked at that met with DW’s approval ranged from 2200-2800 sqft (they don’t have basements), and we don’t expect any guests. Whatever she wants...

 

[Ronstar]

We built our current home in 1994, and it was our most expensive home of the 2 we bought.
I would like to downsize to minimize maintenance. Price isn’t my biggest concern. The ability of the house and location to satisfy my retirement lifestyle is my biggest concern.

 

[whatnot]

Mid pack - great post! We are currently going through the same issues also.
We moved from a LCOL area to a higher COL area. I new we would be paying more for a house but what I thought would be a good budget may not be enough.
So we are also debating on whether to increase our budget or compromise on our wish list. Can we increase our budget safely, I would say yes. But your comments above (you can never be too rich or to thin ...) resonates with me as we too have always been on the conservative side on home value compared to total assets.
FWIW the new revised budget for new home is now 15% of our assets.

 

[COcheesehead]

How many are ending up with a mortgage, or a larger mortgage, after doing so?

Cash buy my friend, cash. The benefit of going from a hot HCOL market to a just becoming hot LCOL market.

 

[Kwirk]

We bought our first and only house 35 years ago. We didn't expect to stay for more than a few years. We've made renovations totaling ~50% of the original cost and are quite happy with what we now have. We probably won't leave until we must.

 

[RunningBum]

I went over 4x the price of my pre-divorce home and 7x what I'd paid for my post-divorce home for the home I had built as my retirement/forever home. I went overboard partly because I was designing it in the dotcom boom, and fortunately sold enough to pay cash.

I had bought a starter-type home after my divorce and a new job with stock options quickly shot my net worth up. I knew I wasn't going to stay around there once retired and I liked the basic house well enough so I just stayed until I was ready.

No regrets. However I did have a temporary part-time move for a few years where I bought a second home in another city. It was just above a starter home, but I really liked a lot of things about it. If my house burned down today, I'd start with that smaller house plan and add on a few things, rather than rebuild my same house. But I'm not considering a downsize. The view alone would add a lot to the cost, so I wouldn't be looking at 1/4 the price.

 

[Cobra9777]

For the people that noted the size of their homes I am surprised at how many empty nesters have such large houses. No way do I want that much space to clean.

+1 Me, either. My house is 1500 sf and even so, there are two rooms that I just don't use except to collect dust. I would probably be just as happy in 800-1200 sf.

Some people say they need tons of space for visitors, but I sure don't. Honestly I don't have many visitors other than my DD and DSIL, and it isn't a giant problem for them to stay at a nice nearby hotel or motel (from either their viewpoint or mine).

We have 4500 square feet on 2.2 acres with a pool, spa, deck, and we share a 10-acre lake with 9 other houses. We have a 550 sqft detached living quarter and a 525 sqft detached storage building for outdoor equipment. The garage is my woodworking shop; no cars allowed.

We have 3 spare bedrooms upstairs... one has been converted to a home theater, and another to my music room. The third is a guest bed and also houses DW's "sewing center" and "craft table". Master is downstairs along with a formal living and dining that don't get used very much. The detached living quarter is now a game room with ping pong, video games, darts, foosball, and an old pinball machine.

We clearly don't "need" all this space for the two of us. But for now, the kids and grandkids are close by and they love coming here. And we want them here. If/when they come to visit on a holiday, it's very easy if they decide to spend the night rather than drive home. I don't want my kids and grandkids in a hotel. This is ground-zero for all birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, etc and I would not trade those experiences for anything. This is our home and we want it to be comfortable and inviting for our family.

Yes, we pay an insane amount for property tax, maintenance, insurance, and utilities. We also have a deep backlog of remodeling projects we want to do as well as some deferred maintenance. So it's not cheap. It's also a fair amount of work for routine cleaning and upkeep. Eventually, these physical demands will be the reason we downsize. But for now, it's manageable, and aside from the travel budget, we don't really have any big spending areas. So this is an area we are comfortable with, and it greatly adds to our happiness in retirement.

 

[W2R]

Our current home is 2300 sqft, with two rooms we never use (living & dining rooms), but it has a full basement. I think I could be happy with less than 1800 sqft. The homes we’ve looked at that met with DW’s approval ranged from 2200-2800 sqft (they don’t have basements), and we don’t expect any guests. Whatever she wants...

Maybe you could compromise on, say, 2000 sf, and then suggest to her that later on, when you feel financially ready for it, you could add on to the house. After living in the 2000 sf house for a while, it's possible that she might decide she doesn't need the extra space after all.

Another thought (inspired by what I ended up doing), is to stay in the same location, which is much cheaper than a move. Then buy the more expensive house without having to pay for a move all at the same time.

In my case, after we didn't move I felt a little wistful about it. So I thought a lot about that and figured out that what I REALLY wanted from moving to Springfield, was not living in Springfield (although that would have been nice) - - mostly I just wanted a better house that was physically closer to F's house, and the move would have given me the opportunity to buy something like that. Then in a "lightbulb moment" I realized that that didn't require moving. Buying my dream house here was a terrific compromise for us.

 

[Fedup]

For the people that noted the size of their homes I am surprised at how many empty nesters have such large houses. No way do I want that much space to clean.

What make you think we clean the house?

 

[FlaGator]

Moved the kids from suburban SoFla to a quieter life on the Redneck Riviera after late DW passed. Spent 150% of the the selling price of the late 60's SoFla house on new construction one mile from the beach. Largest, most expensive house I've ever owned.

Would do it all over again, and would probably be willing to pay even more now that I understand the impact the move and the house has had on our lives .

 

[Teacher Terry]

Actually we have a lot of guests but easily have room to host them even though our house is not big. We also enjoy throwing parties and have cleaners once a month. Still on a daily basis don’t want a huge area to clean. My folks had a 1200 sq ft house and all 3 of us kids would come home with spouses and 3 kids each and have a blast.

 

[W2R]

Moved the kids from suburban SoFla to a quieter life on the Redneck Riviera after late DW passed. Spent 150% of the the selling price of the late 60's SoFla house on new construction one mile from the beach. Largest, most expensive house I've ever owned.

Would do it all over again, and would probably be willing to pay even more now that I understand the impact the move and the house has had on our lives .

What a happy outcome! It's wonderful to read that your move worked out so well for you and the kids.

 

[Midpack]

About 50:50. Interesting, I really didn’t have any idea what to expect.

 

[Helena]

.

I retired in my most expensive home... if you can call it "expensive."

The price of my first home [1100 sqft ranch - 1988 to 2001] was $35,000.

The price of my second/retirement home [2200 sqft ranch - 2001 to present] was $135,000.

Both were paid in full shortly after I bought them. Life is good.

 

[DrRoy]

For about 10 years, we thought that after RE we would move and build the grand forever home. We even bought acreage in the state we intended to move to. When I did RE, circumstances had changed and we no longer felt like we should do it. We liked the house we were in and had a lot going on in the current area. Also, to do it the way we would have wanted to, the new house would have cost 2.5X the current one, and that seemed like too much money to spend on it.
We are now in the process of remodeling to make this house even better, and will spend about 30% of value on that. We might also redo the siding in another year or two, and that might be another 5-10%.

 

[Gumby]

Retiring in less than 8 months in the one and only home we have ever owned. We've spent 26 years in this house and I'm hoping we can spend another 26 years here. Then it's probably the CCRC for us.

 

[albireo13]

We downsized 2 yrs ago and made to move too quickly, in hindsight. We had our house listed for 5 yrs off and on and finally had a reasonable offer. Originally we planned to rent while we looked for our next house. Unfortunately, rentals in our area that would handle a family and pets were harder to find than a house!

We bought a nice house, bordering conservation land, in a great town. Several problems which we minimized before but, now they really bother us:
* very little to no storage space. no attic, teeny basement room.
* steep, downhill driveway - nasty to clear in the winter. I expect to take a header someday on it
* too many stairs to get into the 1st floor.

So, now we are looking again and plan to take our time. One last shot at it I think.