Retiring in a Million Dollar home or a Multi-million Dollar Home

[cyber888]

In the Millionaire Next Door book, the average millionaire's home is about $300K+.

You go to some places like upscale areas of Colorado or Northern Utah and you see $1.5 Million - $50 Million homes .. Do you know anyone who retired in a $1 million, $3 million, $5 million, or $10-$20 million home. What kind of retirement life do these people have ? country club type of life ? are they on 'Staycation for a long while?

 

[Midpack]

I know a couple retired folks living in $1M or more homes. They live an affluent life, unlike 99% of the population. But they can afford it, and they’re conscious they don’t have wage income any more. Their “scaled back” looks rich to most of us. I am sure some spend too much, some too little, just like any socioeconomic group.

 

[Ronstar]

I know a couple who retired and relocated in a $1 million home after selling their prior million dollar home. But the lady of the house wanted to remodel the new place. So they both went back to work to get more $ for the remodel.

 

[MissMolly]

My sister and her husband who retired this year relocated from CT to Santa Fe. They purchased a $1M+ home. My sister has never worked. My BIL will not be returning to work. They will continue their annual vacation to Italy at Christmas for 10 days of skiing as they have done for years. I don't see them cutting back on their lifestyle at all.

 

[stepford]

I have a sibling who is retired in a $2M+ house - just because that's what a standard Single Family Home in the SF Bay Area that was purchased many years ago costs now. Said sibling doesn't live particularly opulently as this isn't a particularly opulent home - just one located in an area with absurd housing costs.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

DW and I have been searching for that “perfect” house for several years now with no luck. Certainly not anywhere near $1M but almost halfway there is our budget. Our problem is that we want a nice house with nice finishes, but not 4000 sf. Seems we can find one but not the other.

Anyhoo, just for fun our agent took us to a $1M that was empty and down the street from a house we were looking at. OMG! I can’t imagine anyone living in such a huge house. I can’t imagine how much maintenance, cleaning, pool cleaning, and mowing would cost. Because certainly nobody in that neighborhood would do it themselves. Or if they did that would be an endless cycle of housework and yard work.

No thank you!

 

[rk911]

In the Millionaire Next Door book, the average millionaire's home is about $300K+.

You go to some places like upscale areas of Colorado or Northern Utah and you see $1.5 Million - $50 Million homes .. Do you know anyone who retired in a $1 million, $3 million, $5 million, or $10-$20 million home. What kind of retirement life do these people have ? country club type of life ? are they on 'Staycation for a long while?

no. AFAIK we are the only couple in the MND club or else everyone else in our circle is keeping the same low profile. our home is right about $300K.

 

[wolf]

I have a sibling who is retired in a $2M+ house - just because that's what a standard Single Family Home in the SF Bay Area that was purchased many years ago costs now. Said sibling doesn't live particularly opulently as this isn't a particularly opulent home - just one located in an area with absurd housing costs.

Location has to be taken into consideration. I also, live in San Francisco Bay Area. My "blue collar", 1400 sq. ft. house cost me $130,000, 35+ years ago.

Today, selling for $ 1,600,000. My life style comfortable. Nothing fancy.
Could not afford to live here today, if I had not bought years ago.

 

[FIREd]

I know a few people who retired in million dollar homes. They have this in common: they have lived in the same house for 40+ years. Usually the houses are modest in appearance but they are located in areas where RE has appreciated much faster than average over the last half century. When they were purchased, none of these houses would have been considered upscale. By most measures (other than price), they still aren’t.

 

[clobber]

Our problem is that we want a nice house with nice finishes, but not 4000 sf.

No thank you!

+1 All I want is a "nicer" 2500 sqft home.

 

[Bamaman]

We thankfully live in an ultra LCOL area. Spend $1 million here and you've got a seriously large and luxurious home.

Those with such homes here will just about always have a second home in Florida that'll run about the same money.

When you get into the true elitists in our area, they'll have a third home in Aspen or one of the ski resort areas. And a private jet to fly back and forth.

 

[candrew]

Do you know anyone who retired in a $1 million, $3 million, $5 million, or $10-$20 million home?

Nope. Not even close.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Our home when we left SoCAL was over $1m and we were not doctor or lawyer types, just a simple Engineer and Admin Assistant. That house was only 2,500 sqft but it was paid for when we left. It was common for folks homes in that Area of the OC to be worth between $1m and $3m., so yes we do know folks who lived in homes up to about $3m. One of our neighbors where we live now and we are friends with purchased their current home for $2.8m and other down the roads is $1.7m. The highest I have seen in our current development is that $2.8m mentioned. However there are a few 5-6000 sqft homes but I have not seen them for sale. Homes vary in size from 1700 - over 6000 sqft in our HOA area of 700 or so homes. We have another friend in a neighboring development cloer to te ocean who paid $2m or so for theirs, homes in that HOA vary from $750k and up. Our current home is less though, but still quite a bit over $300k. We are currently looking to downsize though, but even then in our chosen area it would still be ~$600k.

 

[donheff]

Location, location, location. I'm staying put in my modest $1M+ Capitol Hill, DC townhouse. I could sell it and live in a bigger, fancier place elsewhere for half the price but I like it here. I have seen photos of many posters here who live in roomier, higher end houses than mine. The kids will inherit it at stepped up basis and can stay or go as they see fit. Lots of frugal, LBYM FIREees in NYC, San Francisco and other high cost areas are in similar situations.

 

[MarieIG]

Location has to be taken into consideration. I also, live in San Francisco Bay Area. My "blue collar", 1400 sq. ft. house cost me $130,000, 35+ years ago.

Today, selling for $ 1,600,000. My life style comfortable. Nothing fancy.
Could not afford to live here today, if I had not bought years ago.

That is what I was thinking. There are homes in portions of California, Hawaii and Manhattan in that price range - which are quite modest.

Yes- DU & DA - (don't want to provide too many details) their vacation property alone was worth more than that. They lived long lives, truly enjoyed themselves and their family and when they were older, had round the clock care at home. (I'm tearing up a little, miss them.)

 

[Aerides]

Location, and when you bought it. There are plenty of examples of folks who bought "average" SFH's decades ago which have now become hot and way above 1M.

But no, I don't think you'll find any "MND" types who go out and intentionally buy a 1M property today. The only exceptions would be someone who is still earning, and whose business depends on those locations. I doubt you'll find anyone here who - already retired - then picked a 1M house.

I have a neighborhood a 2 miles from me, inland, inland, with 5-20mil homes. Each looks like a resort, with wide lake views. I can go 2 miles the other way and see beachfront mansions. They're all awful nice looking, but not in my plan!

 

[COcheesehead]

Sure, a bunch of my neighbors are in million plus homes and they all have been custom designed and built. They owned businesses or were prominent lawyers. They are people just like the rest of us, they just happened to make a bunch of money in their lifetime. They travel, enjoy their families and seem happy. Some still drink cheap wine though. LOL.
What helps is we live in a relatively lower cost area compared to the rest of the state. The same houses elsewhere in Colorado would be easily 30% more.

 

[Ronstar]

I've been on an exhaustive house search in the Phoenix area for the past 6 months. It's tough to find homes under $1M in the areas that we want to live. Finding a decent size house is just as tough. In the thousands of houses that I've looked at, I have never seen one below 2,000 sf in the areas that I want to live. Mostly 3000 -4000 sf. Way too big for us.

I get an updated list and map of houses for sale in the Phoenix area daily. Today there are 1446 homes for sale in the Phoenix metro area that are listed for over $1M.

 

[statsman]

I have a sibling who is retired in a $2M+ house - just because that's what a standard Single Family Home in the SF Bay Area that was purchased many years ago costs now. Said sibling doesn't live particularly opulently as this isn't a particularly opulent home - just one located in an area with absurd housing costs.

That described us at the start of retirement a couple years back. $500K house purchase in the Bay Area was worth $2.1M last fall, around 22 years later. Still had about $175K on the mortgage on 2 5/8% fixed. Could have stayed there. I would have preferred it. But our only child moved to Texas three years ago, and DW insisted on moving to Texas.

The only good news to me, outside of being near our kid who had been begging us to move here, was we were able to cash out of our house (and the nasty capital gains tax bill that went with it). Just bought a house here in central Texas that probably would be worth $3-4M in the Bay Area. Cost us less than $500K.

 

[NW-Bound]

The price of real estate is insane not just in places in California.

Look at this "multi-million home" in Vancouver. What a beauty!

Here's the rear of the home. It ended up being sold for more than asking price. The lot is not even big, and there's not even a driveway.

 

[timemoveson]

Yes, we have multi-millions $$ stored in the two homes. No change whatsoever for us in retired lifestyle. We were living well within our means while were were on the FatFIRE path, so simply continuing to live at that level was the plan and it's working great.

 

[Dawg52]

Nope. I know a couple that could but don't. One I grew up with excelled in the insurance business. His home is only 1100 sq ft in the country. He does own a condo in a college town and donates tons of money to a University there. Drives a BMW but other than that.....you would never know he is wealthy by his daily lifestyle. Large expensive homes are not for everyone.

 

[NW-Bound]

You cannot afford $2.5M to buy the above tear down in Vancouver?

May I suggest this $1M tear down in San Jose? Another beauty. Makes you wonder what the neighborhood looks like.

 

[Another Reader]

You cannot afford $2.5M to buy the above tear down in Vancouver?

May I suggest this $1M tear down in San Jose? Another beauty. Makes you wonder what the neighborhood looks like.

I don't see an address, but the title of the picture suggests a street in the trendy Willow Glen Neighborhood. Cute little 1930's and 40's houses on small lots. Some areas have settlement issues. Will be a $2M house when redeveloped.

 

[jollystomper]

I have several friends who have retired in what I would say are $1M+ properties. Their homes are relatively modest, but they have lots of acreage around them to support their interests - fancy pools, guest houses, private outdoor activities, raising animals, renting out land for others to farm, etc.