Are most people still downsizing?

[jo-jo]

With our daughter going to college next year, we've had a few discussions. Downsizing is something, I think, we both thought we'd always do. We have a very large house, 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, finished basement, big yard (a lot of yardwork) and in ground pool and it's 7500 square feet. But, we've put so much money into remodeling and fixing that we've considered staying. There is an option to stay in a bedroom with bathroom on main floor (we have 3 levels). I friend of mine is a realtor. She told me some clients of hers were looking to downsize. They looked around, didn't like anything and definitely didn't like the cost so they decided to age in place. Put the money into the house they live in to make doorways wider, bathrooms larger with safety features, etc.

wow!

Is the heat/cooling all on one control? Can you lower heat usage on upper floors and just live on first floor?

 

[easyas123]

I haven’t seen anyone else here mention the pet factor, but we can’t be alone in that, can we?

No way! Gotta have room for the pups!

Our kids are out of the house, and while we have more room than we need, our home also has specific features that we love - #1 a complete wrap around porch that we spend a lot of time on and # 2 it's a small farm, and we really enjoy the space to spread out. We also have a 2 story in-law suite we keep for my parents when they come up from down south, and as long as they are traveling north, we are committed to keeping the farm no matter how much time I have to spend in the tractor mowing. We've had a few conversations - would one of the boys want to take over the farm and we would live in the in-law suite, but at this point in my life that isn't something I would want. Maybe in 30 years or so... we have a rough idea when we do sell the farm we will probably buy a much smaller place up here, and spend 3-6 months a year traveling or possibly rent or buy a second place in a different location.
I guess it would help if we had our hearts set on retirement some place other than here - it's not that I don't want to leave - we are up for that! It's just that we don't know what/where we want yet.
We do have a lot of living space we don't utilize, but we love being empty nesters.

 

[disykat]

Since we raised our two kids in a three bedroom ranch, we don't really have a need to downsize. We still use all the space. My parents did the same thing. They lived in their home until they went into assisted living and then afterwards we still kept it since they stayed in their hometown and we needed somewhere to stay when going there. We'll do the same with the exception of selling the house first because we are planning to move near one of the kids so they don't have to travel to us to help us.

There were a few times over the years I wished we had more space or more than one story, but I'm so glad now!

 

[focusondisney]

We‘ve been empty nesters for quite awhile. We have a small 1600 sq ft house with no plans to downsize. We like our neighborhood, our kids & extended families are all within 25 minutes of us. We’ve made some updates the last few years to keep us comfortable as we age, like a remodeled family room with gas fireplace; central AC & an automatic whole house generator. We do need to declutter & I started some of that last year. Still a lot more to do, we just need to get serious about it, lol.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

No chance of us ever moving. No need to downsize cause we only have 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Unfortunately our bedroom is upstairs and the bathroom is downstairs. I’m 60, my husband is 67. We bought a fold out bed that looks just like a big dresser. Has fake drawers and you’d never guess it opens up to a queen size bed with a really nice memory foam mattress. So if it ever comes to the point where we just can’t sleep upstairs anymore with no bathroom, we’ll have a bed downstairs. Right now our 3 granddaughters love it.

 

[pigletto]

I don’t know that we would downsize as the house we are in is only 1300 square feet. The issue is layout. Bathrooms are in the basement and the upstairs but nothing on the main level.

It’s a 100 year old home with small rooms and I would also like a different layout that allowed extended family to gather comfortably. So I think we will eventually make a lateral move. Same size but easier to entertain in and age into.

 

[QueenIsabella]

No plans to downsize, even though our house is pretty big. It was originally a ranch, so there's a second master on the first floor. And the upstairs master is huge, something like 1200 square feet, and could easily be a caretaker apartment if needed.

We do need to update 2 of the downstairs bathrooms, including enlarging their narrow doors, and we plan to convert the 2nd MBA tub/ shower to a walk-in shower with a seat. We would keep the tub in the other downstairs bathroom that has one.

We like our space. And one-level living would be very achievable where we are.

 

[Ellie008]

We currently have a 2 story house with all the bedrooms on the second floor, and really no good option to convert a first floor room into a bedroom. So, yes, once the kids leave we will definitely be looking for something else. Currently tossing around location possibilities, but we have time.

 

[payankeerose]

When we built our home in 1997, we had 2 kids in HS , one in elementary and a 3 year old. We realized that most of our families had 2 and 3 story homes and had issues when they got older. So we thankfully built a 4 bedroom ranch style home. We live in SC so the climate is excellent and because of no steps, we won't be downsizing. Edited to add, we live on acreage, so we are very rural.

 

[OKW8297]

Last year we downsized from a ranch house with a full in-law to a condo with two bedrooms. Absolutely love it. It’s like we are on vacation every day.

 

[bluezy]

Our youngest is 21. No plans to downsize. The kids are still floating in and out of the house as they find their paths. Our 24-year-old next week has been with us for the last year and a half waiting to get into medical school. He should start in August. Hooray!

We are also the "party house" for holiday gatherings with my mom and brothers and sister and their families.

Two of our sons live far enough away that they need a place to sleep when they come home for family events.

If anything, we'd like MORE space for the gatherings as the family grows.

We were in a similar situation. We built our house 20 years ago. A year or two after that we finished off the basement to add a large bedroom, full bath, and a large family/game room. So we currently have 6 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms. We have 5 kids. All but one (the 18 yo) have moved out and are either married or in a long-term relationship. We also have 2 grandchildren so far. Three of the kids live within 30 minutes of us. The fourth one lives about 2 hours away. We currently have 3 "guest/spare" rooms (the 18 yo is currently using the 4th empty bedroom as a gaming/computer room -- it was her "school room" for 1.5 years during the pandemic). DH's family is about 3.5 hours away and his sister, BIL, and mother come to visit a few times a year so it's nice to have multiple guest rooms. However, we realized about a year ago that we needed more entertainment space. While our dining room and breakfast nook were fine for the 7 of us when the kids were all living at home, when everyone comes home for an event (which happens numerous times in a year), we don't have enough space. I was tired of having people strewn throughout 3 rooms to eat a meal, so we added a large room off of our breakfast nook that we now call the "social room" (for lack of a better name). We used it for an extended family Christmas gathering a few weeks ago and had tables and chairs for 24 people with plenty of room to spare. It was heaven! We've had people say, "Your kids are all moving out and you're planning to retire in 3 years. Why would you be adding on to your house????" Ummmm...because we needed a bigger gathering space so we could all be in the same room when all the kids come home for a meal.

And to answer the original question of the post: We don't plan to downsize for at least 10 years (barring any health-related issues that would make it difficult to stay at this house). And when we do downsize, it will most likely be to a progressive care facility -- starting out in a cottage or apartment. We paid off this house 3+ years ago so that doesn't figure into the equation at all. We have 4 acres of land with about 3.5 of that being actual yard. DH loves cutting the grass (he's weird like that ) but if we needed to, we'd hire someone to do that. When we built this house we made sure to design it in a way that we can just live on the first floor when we need to (already did that for a month a few years ago when DH inured his knee and couldn't use the steps for several weeks). We've got a bedroom, full bath, laundry, etc. all on the first floor. We wouldn't really need to go upstairs for anything other than to possibly change out our wardrobes twice a year as we don't have a walk-in closet in the first floor bedroom.

In addition to the new room we just added on to the house, we're trying to get rid of "stuff" and we've been updating the bathrooms, repainting everything, and just generally refreshing things throughout the house. I hear so many people say that once they got their house ready to sell (by doing all of those things), they wished they weren't selling it because now it looked so nice! So we're spending the next year working on all of those things so we "feel" like we got a new house!

 

[DawnM]

We have just been talking about this. My (former) youngest left for college this year and we thought we would stay in NC until he graduated (he is in a state school) but then we are also starting over again with a 5 year old who will start K next year. OY!

So, we are staying in our large house for the foreseeable future.

 

[dvcgirl67]

We've been downsizing since we bought our first home, which was a McMansion in NJ...that was 4,000 sq ft. 5 bed house (not including finished basement) It suited us early in our marriage....we were the hub in the family and entertained a lot. It was an acre lot, huge deck, pool...etc. Then moved to Florida for DH's job...2,500 sq ft. Then to where we are now in NJ...a 1915 "pre-war" house with lots of character that the previous owners completely renovated...kept the character, updated kitchen...fixtures, etc. It's only 1600 sq ft, but since it's just the two of us...there are still rooms we barely use.

We love this house and the size suits us, but I'm not sure if we'll keep it. When we do retire we intend to move around the country/world...and not sure if we'll want to keep it as a hub or sell it and invest the 750-800K we'd likely get for it. We've toyed around with possibly keeping it as a rental, but not sure if we want the hassle.

We moved around a lot early in our marriage....ever 3-4 years we moved from NJ to California to NJ to Florida...then back here in 2007....and here ever since. I'm restless....would like to move around now, but we've got three dogs, two are older....a 91 year old FIL and my nearly 80 year old mother. We're kind of taking it year to year...will continue to work while we're still here in NJ with obligations. But our plan is to be on the move with one small dog in our 60s if we're able.

 

[mumto3girls]

Not sure. We still have one in high school and are in our early 50’s so we are still a few years away. I also think I’d like to stay put until the youngest is out of college, barring any life altering changes, illnesses etc, because until then I feel like this is still her home. After that, I’m not sure. It’s a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath ranch with the garage off of the kitchen. The only reason we would need to go downstairs is laundry which could be moved upstairs at some point. There is a lot of yard work though—corner lot with mature trees. When we were first married we lived in a brand new townhome with beautiful bathrooms, big windows and oversized closets. I don’t want the steps that townhouse has, but I’d love something more modern, more spacious and light. The closets here are tiny as are the bathrooms and it’s pretty dark. The kitchen is small for the size of the house.

I think we’ll probably wait and see where the kids land. If none of the three of them end up here, maybe we’ll move near one of them—especially if there’s grandkids.

 

[Colleen27]

You don't have to in order to eventually downsize. It's all about your needs over time. Even my mom in a smaller home doesn't necessarily want the space she has and thought about moving into a townhouse. Other people may move into condos. Others may move into assisted living.

Yep. We never bought into the McMansion thing either, but our old fixer-upper Victorian feels like a lot of space now that it is just three of us and borders on ridiculous for just DH & I. Plus it has a few things I don't like that I can't easily fix, like all the bedrooms and the only full bath being upstairs; that was a necessary evil for getting the size/bedrooms we needed with all the kids still living at home, but isn't well suited to aging in place.

I haven’t seen anyone else here mention the pet factor, but we can’t be alone in that, can we?

I wouldn't move somewhere my dog(s) couldn't come too, though I don't know that we'll continue to adopt new animals once DD14 is off to college because I'm away so much. But I'm also a gardener so downsizing for us was always a question of a smaller single-family home with a smaller yard but not a condo or townhouse because my own outdoor space and a certain amount of freedom to do as I wish with it is an absolute must.

 

[tasha99]

Nope. For a while I was hoping we could move from our house to a small ocean front condo on the Oregon coast, but I don't think we will. I bet there are lots of maintenance costs related to the environment there, plus, I've worked in nursing homes on the coast, and I learned that healthcare services are pretty inadequate in small coastal towns. Anyone who needed medical care had to take a ride inland an hour to get to a decent sized hospital--could be a real pain to have to drive like that for appointments in my old age. I think we'll stay put and maybe rent more weeks at our favorite condo. We go once a year now, and maybe going once a quarter would be better than the headache of moving.

 

[disneychrista]

No. If I ever become an empty nester I will not move. At this point moving would cost me money not save it. My house is pretty small (comparatively) at 1,100 Sq Ft. My older daughters room is now the office for my side job, I use it once or twice a month. My younger daughters room, if she ever moves out, will become the guest room no body will ever stay in.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

wow!

Is the heat/cooling all on one control? Can you lower heat usage on upper floors and just live on first floor?

We have 3 furnaces and 3 AC units. We placed 2 furnaces and 2 AC units but still have 1 AC unit and furnace to go (the basement). Each floor has their own control. We hardly ever turn on the basement control.

 

[slo]

I would love to downsize someday, but my DH would have to get rid of a lot of stuff for us to do that - for example….he has his tools, my grandpa’s tools, his grandpa’s tools and his great uncle’s tools. There’s other things like that too. Luckily, he has them stored well, but in order for us to downsize, the majority of this stuff has to go, because I refuse to pay for a storage garage.

 

[jo-jo]

My dream is not to move but to take the dining room, bump out the outside wall about 8 ft and get a bathroom in there . We have a porch on the other side of back wall, so it will balance out the look. Make a studio type set up for me. Later on the room can be used for the family get together.

Then have DS and family to move in , rest of house. We have 2400 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths. Right now the dining room is the puzzle room for DH.

Of course my plan is going to cost about 2 million, but that's another story.