Facing The Enormity of Change

Facing The Enormity of Change

Picking up the thread…we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to eavesdrop on a real life / real estate situation courtesy of Bob and Cathy (a local couple whose names have been changed to protect the innocent).

They’ve graciously agreed to share their story and be the Poster-Couple for that huge swathe of aging baby-boomers-in-waiting out there. The group of folks that’s trying to figure out what comes next and what’s going to work for the last third of their lives.

Just to add context: We’re trying to figure out why the real estate market has had such historically low levels of inventory over the last four years. It’s my contention that the acute lack of homes for sale is due to the difficulty our aging population is having with the whole notion of change and the significant challenges that arise when people want to sell and buy a home in the same marketplace at the same time.

Bob and Cathy have owned a 4br, 3.5ba, 3500 sq ft home on the non-ocean side of Hwy 1 for more than twenty-five years. Their kids are grown and they are seriously planning to retire (any year now). They’ve done well and have some savings. But they would also like to pull some of the equity out of their house and use it to enjoy their lives.

Now that they are at retirement age they realize it might not be a good thing to have so much equity locked up in their home.  It’s great not to have any mortgage debt, but it recently came to their attention that once they retire, they might not have enough income to qualify for a home equity loan if they need it.  What if there is an emergency? They’ve heard about reverse mortgages but they are wary of their reputations. 

They’d like to travel. After a lifetime of accumulating stuff and even more stuff, they’ve come to the conclusion that they’d really rather own less stuff and have more life experiences instead. Especially while they are still healthy and have enough energy to go on some interesting adventures. Otherwise, why did they work all those years?

They think they’d like to sell their place and buy a smaller, cheaper, single-level home near the beach. Cathy has bad knees and the idea of a one story house is appealing. (A recent article in the New York Times says: Growing numbers of Americans are outliving their joints!)  

Both of them have watched elderly parents, in their late 80s, struggling with health problems. And they are both mindful of the even greater challenges that may come another thirty years down the road, if they are fortunate enough to live that long.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? It should be easy to sell a more expensive house and buy a less expensive one. But Bob and Cathy are finding it anything but easy to figure out how this is all supposed to work. There’s no script available that they can read in advance.

As Bob says: “Part of what we’re struggling with is the enormity of the change we’re considering. It’s not just about the money questions.  When you change your home, you change everything and that’s not easy to do at our age.