starting to think downsizing to a townhouse not worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. My parents have done the math many times. The costs of buying and selling is so high in the first place and then factor in that even smaller houses in their preferred areas are still expensive enough, they aren't going to save much money, if any, from downsizing. My father even once calculated due to selling/buying and moving costs, it would take a decade to break even. And in their market, their taxes would go up due to buying anew. So they're staying put in their large SFH.

Same for my parents. They realized that they’ll just end up in a smaller place with no real money saving.

[Anonymous]

blaming older people for still living in their homes is an indefensible position to take

NP here. I'm 60+ with adult kids and I do not intend to live in a larger/more affluent house than my adult children. I do now but I will sell and pay it forward - - they need: the bigger house, the better school district, the shorter commute. Not me, I don't need those things.

[Anonymous]

OP is not looking in the right suburbs. I live in Westchester and friends just bought a luxury townhouse with 4 bedrooms and 2 garages in a rivertown community with a Metro-North station for $750k. Expand your parameters, OP.

[Anonymous]

The point of downsizing isn't to make money. It's to reduce the footprint you have to take care of and enjoy your life in an area you want to be in. If you just want to buy a townhouse down the street that's the same number of bedrooms as your house, then what's even the point? What empty nester needs three bedrooms? Either just keep your house or move to a more convenient area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP again. Yes, it's crazy. And it's keeping out young families who could really benefit from our spacious homes. Of course, with complaints about school crowding, maybe this is a blessing. But I feel for millennials right now.

Don't feel badly. Eventually people die or go to assisted care. Several houses have come up in our neighborhood for these reasons. I think a lot of older folks make the calculation that you made and realize that their next move will be one that is out of necessity (because the financials just don't work). "Downsizing was not a thing in my grandparents' day. I think it only came up as a "thing" in the last 25 years or so. My grandmother's house did not go on the market until after she died. Nobody judged her for that. But people do judge the boomers for doing the same thing. In fact I know someone who would like to downsize, but just plain can't find a smaller home in their area (because there aren't many that were built). She has given up.

But our grandparents' houses were modest to begin with. My grandparents raised 4 kids in a 3 bed, 2 bath house with a 1 car garage and my other grandparents raised 6 kids in a 3 bed, 1 bath house with no garage. OP wants to downsize to a bigger house than those. Standards have changed.

I feel for OP's situation of feeling stuck in a too-large house, but it's not unreasonable for young families to look at that situation and say that it's unfair for them to have to pay the prices OP is complaining about for a townhouse that isn't as spacious for their family while OP hangs onto a house with space they don't need.

No, blaming older people for still living in their homes is an indefensible position to take.

This. Nobody owes you their assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately it doesn't make sense to "downsize" to a townhouse in your current neighborhood:
- Moving to somewhere with stairs is not a good idea
- You're not improving anything substantial like location or amenities of a 55+ community
- You'll spend a fortune on realtor fees, closing costs, starting over with tax assessment at the new place, moving costs, and the inevitable money spent on fixing up the new place to suit your needs. Then you get to do it again once you hit the age when you shouldn't live somewhere with stairs.

Just stay where you are or trade for something substantially better like moving into the city.

You don't owe your home to anyone younger. That's just the latest foreign-influenced political propaganda to normalize hatred of older people who don't vote the way they do.

Plus the reality is that most old people don't maintain their homes very well. When you move, your home will probably have to have a gut reno or be razed, so it's not some young couple just can move into it.

that is becaue young people are insane. I sold my mint condition starter home we loved to death as had to move was a split 1,300 sf with a 200 sf finish basement 1,600 feet today. Had two bidders.

1) young married couple in a apartment she was pregant her MIL and her really wanted a house.
2) a couple who were around 60. Their only child a daughter bought a house a few blocks over, married with a great son in law and a 1 and 3 year old. Wanted a near mint condition house manageable house near their grandkids but also wanted 3 bedrooms as wanted to baby sit and have sleep over grandkids.

We actually first accepted young couple offer they were insane with home inspecton report. My favorite a single wooden board on my small 10-13 back deck was looking damaged so they put I needed a new deck wanted 5k off, house was empty as I relocated and no one ran AC and and we had floods of massive rain and humidity plus heat. My crawl space door had some mold on back of it wanted 10K off for mold remediation. I had a brand new bathroom in den and and master bathroom was in nice shape. They commented my third fully bathroom was dated and needed replacing. Dude do you know how rare it is to see a house with 1,600 total sf with three full baths. And who is even using that bath. You have a great one in MBR and Den where guests go has a brand new one. they even complained a gutter was loose and I need caukl on a door and they found a sticky faucet and they wanted 40K off. I was like are you insane, my wife just wanted to get rid of it and said 20K ok. Then they started again in on sellers credits and stuff. I finally cancled deal.

The older couple loved house. I sold it same price they offered but no money off. I spent one full day at house, flipped board on deck. No rot, just board loose, ran dehumudifier and wiped down door that got some mold on it, fixed gutter, caulk door and replaced sticky faucet handle. All in cost me $200 bucks in supplies and a day work.

Years earlier we sold my Moms small home in a estate sale. We also had a young couple, lived nearby, about to have a kid, loved house to death. They were 5k below top offer that was as is and cash. My sister dug in and said look lets sell it to them. With four kids only like $1,200 less per kid and mom would want a nice young couple in house and not some flipper. Well they did same thing crazy demands and my brother doing deal tried to explain it is as is. They wanted chimmny clean, brought up maybe chimmny liner all things noted in inspection and my brother was like that is good info. Then they were like well please fix all these things. My brother was like it is as is. But we fixed every minor issue in house, we painted whole house, house is spotless clean and our landscaper just did spring clean up and outside is perfect. They they started in about mortgage cost and we relisted and a man whose daughter just graduated law school saw the small home in perfect shape except needed refreshing paid cash for home as is for $25k more than them. Daughter ended up living there for a few years and they sold it for 100k more. I mean the small homes that are priced well. I sold two they young people want viking ovens, Subzero fridges, all new bathrooms and kitchens and that is impossible in a small well priced starter home.

Yeah some younger people are crazy with the inspection requests. Had one who wanted the "dryer vent rerouted" as it vented under the deck (but was still accessible). I informed them that this was literally a 20 ft straight out of the house (no turns for lint to get stuck in and become a fire hazard) and the solution they wanted would have 3 turns, so it's a safety violation and nope we would not be addressing that. The same people also wanted us to fix a crack (a line thru the sidewalk) on the sidewalk---nothing was sinking, the house was 20 years old of course the concrete sidewalk is not 100% perfect, but nothing was wrong.

Interestingly, they were so stupid/naive, they asked us to fix the blinds in a specific room. They had the wrong room and wrong floor (I knew what they were looking for). So we sent them a video of the blinds they listed, demonstrated it was fully functioning and we had no clue what they were talking about. They never got back to us. Closed on the house 3 weeks later, and we only fixed the one real item that required it from the list.
So they had an incompetent inspector who couldn't even get the basics right. And listed every little item that wasn't 100% perfect in a 17-20 year old home. THat's not what a home inspection is for.
And yet they missed much more meaningful items that had they asked, we would have had to fix (for them or a future buyer). So nothing major, but their inspector missed several items that made much more sense to request repairs for, or at least make them aware of, not "the sidewalk has a crack"

I think it’s because young people once they fork over the money for the down payment and they’re closing costs, they have very little left over to address any of these maintenance issues. It might take him a couple years to save up again to address it all and by then cost of gone up and maybe they have young kids so they don’t even have the time to handle it themselves or outsource it properly. They would much rather roll it into the loan itself and have it be done before moving in.

I get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP again. Yes, it's crazy. And it's keeping out young families who could really benefit from our spacious homes. Of course, with complaints about school crowding, maybe this is a blessing. But I feel for millennials right now.

Don't feel badly. Eventually people die or go to assisted care. Several houses have come up in our neighborhood for these reasons. I think a lot of older folks make the calculation that you made and realize that their next move will be one that is out of necessity (because the financials just don't work). "Downsizing was not a thing in my grandparents' day. I think it only came up as a "thing" in the last 25 years or so. My grandmother's house did not go on the market until after she died. Nobody judged her for that. But people do judge the boomers for doing the same thing. In fact I know someone who would like to downsize, but just plain can't find a smaller home in their area (because there aren't many that were built). She has given up.

But our grandparents' houses were modest to begin with. My grandparents raised 4 kids in a 3 bed, 2 bath house with a 1 car garage and my other grandparents raised 6 kids in a 3 bed, 1 bath house with no garage. OP wants to downsize to a bigger house than those. Standards have changed.

I feel for OP's situation of feeling stuck in a too-large house, but it's not unreasonable for young families to look at that situation and say that it's unfair for them to have to pay the prices OP is complaining about for a townhouse that isn't as spacious for their family while OP hangs onto a house with space they don't need.

No, blaming older people for still living in their homes is an indefensible position to take.

I agree. The entitlement on here is nuts. We worked hard and saved for many years and plan to enjoy our retirement. We gave our kids a debt-free education; buying a home or saving for a down payment is up to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never ever got the appeal of a townhouse. You may as well get a condo.

The appeal is they’re cheaper and better to raise kids in than a condo. I bought a 450k townhouse several years ago as my first house before the covid price increases. 500k was my max budget and even though I wanted a SFH there were no good options in that price range.

I don’t have rich parents helping me out so that’s what I could afford as a single 20 something. I could have splurged for a SFH in the 700k range and been OK in the end but that would have been more of a reach.