I live in a modest paid-off house in Tucson, AZ, and I love my home and neighborhood. But I often wonder when it will be time to part company with them. There are financial, physical, and emotional factors to this decision. The 2008-2009 economic downturn and slowly recovering housing market have made it clear how important it is to sell at the right time, especially if the house is a significant part of your assets. Among the victims of the recession were elderly people who needed to be in assisted living, but who were unable to sell their houses to finance it.
A house is a wonderful thing, but for many, at a certain point upkeep becomes daunting. I have only partly joked that I plan to sell the house before the roof needs replacing. Though I love my house, when things go wrong, I would gladly trade it for a condo or even a rental. Home maintenance tends to be costly and stressful, especially when even simple repairs require hiring a professional.
For many people, aspects of their houses – like stairs and narrow halls and doorways – end up being the tipping factor. Sometimes, houses can be retrofitted to accommodate physical limitations – for more information, see Home Modifications. But at a certain point (which will differ for each individual), it may just be easier to move to a smaller, simpler place with fewer maintenance responsibilities and physical challenges.
For some, the time to sell comes with diminished ability to drive (For more information, see Driving). In most American cities and suburbs, if you don’t drive, you’re dependent on family, friends, neighbors, and community services. Obviously, your personal network and the resources of your community will play a role in determining whether staying in your house (condo, apartment) is even possible.
Deciding to downsize generally involves dealing with possessions. I’ve heard people joke about how their children will have to pay for their inheritance by dealing with their parents’ accumulated stuff. In the absence of children, at some point you’ll have to a) deal with those possessions, b) make provisions for someone else to do it, or c) accept that your stuff will be dispersed by uncaring strangers. Fortunately for us, there’s an emerging profession, with a national organization and all, of “senior move managers,” who’ll help us declutter our lives.
In the continuum of hoarders, I place myself somewhere in the middle. When I retired, I thought I would go through my closets the first year and then systematically tackle the filing cabinets. But there are always other things to do, and I don’t really need the space, so I keep putting it off. Will I succeed in cleaning up my own clutter? Will I need a professional Move Manager to help me? Who knows? I hope that at some point I’ll manage to clean up after myself as a conscious choice.