Your home is your castle. After retirement, you’ll likely spend more time in and around your home than before. So it’s important that your home be comfortable but also meet your needs. Your home should fit your retirement lifestyle. Although moving to a retirement community is an option for many people, surveys find the majority of people over the age of 50 prefer to stay in their homes and age in place.
You have a wide variety of choices for homes. What’s the right choice for you? We can offer some ideas, but the home you choose to live in for retirement is ultimately a personal decision.
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Benefits and Challenges of Aging in Place
If you have the ability and desire to live on your own, staying in your own home (instead of a retirement community or living with relatives) can be an attractive option.
Here are some of the attractive features of living on your own:
Keep Your Independence
Living independently and with dignity is very important to many older adults. When you live in a retirement community, or even with grown children, you’re dependent on their schedule and give up some control over your activities. Living independently lets older adults feel like individuals.
Save Costs
The national median monthly cost of assisted living is $5,350 in 2024. The cost can be significantly higher in some states. Although staying in your own home also has costs, they are typically much lower. Housing and housing-related costs in the U.S. are around $1,784 per month.
Safety
Although many assisted living facilities are safe and healthy, a study found residents of assisted living facilities were more likely to be hospitalized, had a greater risk of falls and emergency department visits, and had twice the odds of death than those living on their own in the community.
Living in an assisted living community also has an emotional toll: residents can become homesick and depressed, which further impacts their physical health.
But staying in your home also has some challenges:
You’re On Your Own
Unless you have relatives or close friends living nearby, you’re on your own in your home. There’s no one to tend to your needs or check on you regularly like there is in a senior living community.
You may also tend to become isolated in your home. Without regular social interactions, you might become lonely, especially if mobility is an issue.
Home Maintenance
Part of being on your own means you’re responsible for all aspects of home maintenance. If you’ve lived in a home for a while, you know there are many homeowner tasks, ranging from mowing the lawn and replacing smoke detector batteries to maintaining the air conditioning system. You have to keep doing all of these or hire people to do them.
As you get older, you may also find the home is no longer suited to your needs. You may not be able to get in and out of the shower as easily as you used to, or you might not be able to reach the upper kitchen cabinets. So you’ll need to move or renovate your home.
What is the Right Home for You?
Maybe you’ve decided to stay in a home of your own for retirement. Then the question is, what kind of home do you want? Everyone’s idea of the perfect home after retirement is a little different. The perfect home for you depends on your plans for retirement.
Are you very social and plan to do a lot of entertaining in your home? Then a home with a large living room and kitchen might be good.
Do you want to travel in retirement? In that case, a smaller, low-maintenance home, where you can lock the doors and go, might suit you.
What if you’ve always wanted to start a vegetable garden? A home with a larger backyard, in a location with a suitable climate and soil conditions, could be what you need.
Although people assume that most retirees downsize to a smaller home, a Merrill Lynch/Age Wave survey found 49% of retirees actually didn’t. The survey found that 43% of retirees preferred a home with the same amount of space, and 30% actually moved to a larger home after retirement. So it just depends on what you want.
You’ll also need to consider the future. Your two-story family home with four bedrooms that’s great for entertaining and overnight guests now might seem large and empty in 20 years. You may not want to go up and down stairs several times each day to get to your bedroom. However, you may not want to spend on costly home renovations later to support your changing lifestyle. For example, a walk-in bathtub can cost $3,000 to $15,000, while widening an entry doorway can cost you $1,000.
Universal Design
If you’re building a home for your retirement, you might consider including universal design elements to keep your home suitable for you as you age in place. Universal design means “designing an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.”
Universal design in a home means incorporating features that make the home accessible and usable for people of a wide range of ages and abilities. Such features may include:
- Single-story living; it’s either a one-story home or has a kitchen, bedroom, and full bathroom on the ground floor
- A main entrance that is level to the ground (no steps) to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers
- Open floor plans that include at least five feet of clear space and wide hallways and doorways to accommodate wheelchairs
- Automatically opening and closing doors or doors with handicap buttons
Some other features are:
- Non-slip flooring
- Grab bars and seats in the shower
- Lowered countertops
- Extra-bright lighting
Although such features may seem superfluous when you’re relatively young and energetic, you may come to appreciate them in the future. It is much less expensive to build in these features during construction than to add them to an existing home.
Here’s a video about universal design for homes.
Move or Stay?
Speaking of an existing home, what about the home you’re already in? Should you stay put or move?
For many people, retirement is a chance to pull up stakes and explore new perspectives. Many retirees choose to move: to be closer to their grown children or other relatives, to rightsize to a more suitable home, or to enjoy a different part of the country.
Maybe they’ve lived near the mountains for decades and now want to live on the beach. Or maybe they’ve been in wintry New England and now want to experience a warmer climate in the Deep South. Some retirees choose to move overseas and live as expats. A few adventurous types even retire on cruise ships.
Most Retirees Stay Put
A study, however, found the majority of retirees (53%) remain in the homes they occupied in their early 50s. About another fifth (17%) move when they retire and then stay in their new homes. Some late movers (16%) stay in their homes until their 80s and then move, often to a rental or retirement community. And 14% are frequent movers who move around a lot in retirement.
Moving is a personal decision; whether and where to move depends on your preferences and situation. You might need to take time to figure things out. Your kids and other relatives might also have opinions.
Leaving the home you may have occupied for many years can be an emotional experience. You’ve formed memories and had many family gatherings there. Your children may have attended the local schools, and you may have close friendships in the neighborhood. Your house is much more than a physical building.
On the other hand, retirement is a big life transition, and an accompanying change of scenery may be appropriate. A 2009 survey found that moving tended to improve people’s psychological state. Even those who hadn’t planned on moving but were forced to, for example, by a sudden life change, were in better spirits afterward than those who stayed in place.
As with any important, complex decision, it may be helpful to list the pros and cons of both options. Below are some of the pros and cons of moving in retirement. Also, here is a short quiz that might help you when deciding whether to move.
PROS of Moving After Retirement
You’re Closer to Family and Friends
Many people move in order to live closer to relatives, particularly grown children. This has a lot of benefits. You can spoil your grandchildren and watch them grow up. Your children are there to support and provide help when you need it, and vice versa.
But also consider that your relatives may choose or be forced to move later, such as for job relocation.
You Might Save Costs
You may have lived in an expensive state or area for your work. But now that you’re retired, with the freedom to move, you may decide to live somewhere with lower taxes or costs of living. Moving to a smaller home could also put some dough in your pocket, as buying a smaller home in a less pricey area will cost less than you can get by selling your existing home.
You Can Choose Your Home
You may have chosen your home based on what was best for your kids or because it was in a good school district. But after retirement, you can select a home that’s best for your situation. If you want a large recreation room for your pool table or a study room where you can write the great American novel, you can look for that.
You Can Choose the Location
Instead of living close to work, after retirement, you can choose where to live based on your needs. Maybe you want to enjoy a warmer (or cooler) climate. Perhaps you want access to quality healthcare (always a plus as we get older). Or you want to be near an international airport because you plan to travel.
Relocating to a new area can bring you access to amenities and give you lots of opportunities.
However, there are some downsides to consider as well.
CONS of Moving After Retirement
You’ll Have to Leave Your Familiar Surroundings
Retirement, even if you’ve been anticipating it for a while, is still a big change. Moving out of a house and neighborhood you’ve called home for years is also a huge transition. You know your home, with all of its quirks and features, and have set it up the way you want it. When you move, you’ll have to leave it all behind and get used to someplace totally new.
You will also have to leave your friends and community and form new friendships in a new location. You’ll have to learn all over again where the grocery stores and pharmacies are, how to get around, and what time the buses run.
You’ll Have to Find a New Physician
Over the years, you may have gotten to know your doctor and dentist well. They know your health history and your health needs. You may have a good working relationship with them. Now, you’ll have to find new healthcare providers and take the time to get to know them.
Moving is Expensive, Stressful, and a Lot of Work
Packing for a move, even if it’s just a few miles away, is a lot of effort. You may not want or be able to lift heavy boxes, so you’ll need professional movers to help you. And you may have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. Deciding what to bring with you, and how to arrange it all in your new home, takes effort.
Decluttering
If you’re moving to a smaller home, you’ll need to lose some weight. Not around your middle, around your home. Even if you’re moving to a larger or same-sized place, or not moving at all, retirement is a good chance to clean up.
The key to decluttering is to start early and take it a step at a time. If you’ve lived in your home for a while, you may have piles and boxes of stuff. Thinking about going through it all can seem overwhelming. So start in one place, such as a corner of your garage, and give yourself plenty of time. Don’t try to do everything at one time, or you’ll burn out.
Mel Mason, known as “The Clutter Expert,” points out that the clutter didn’t appear overnight, and it won’t go away overnight. Living clutter-free is a lifestyle, just like eating healthy and exercising regularly. You have to adapt to it gradually in order for it to stick.
“But I don’t know what to get rid of”
A lot of stuff has sentimental value, and some stuff you keep because it might be useful someday. Mel says not to beat yourself up if you’re not ready to get rid of some stuff just yet. The key is to consciously decide whether to keep each item and not just keep it around for no reason. At some point, you’ll decide what you’re not using. If it has value, donate it so someone else can use it.
Many people feel that by getting rid of things that belonged to a loved one, they are losing the memory of that person. But your memories are with you forever, and you don’t need to carry a bunch of stuff from an earlier time to keep those memories. By donating an item that’s been sitting in storage in your house, you give it renewed usefulness.
By cutting down on the clutter, you can enjoy your retirement more fully without all of the stuff staring at you every day.
Here’s an interview with Mel Mason in which she describes the different types of clutter.
Download Mel’s free e-book, Freedom From Clutter, here.
Home Modifications
If you choose to stay in your present home for retirement, you may consider installing some safety modifications. These can include:
- handrails for climbing stairs or walking between rooms
- replacing steep stairs with ramps or stairlifts
- slip-resistant floors
- shower benches and handrails
Home modifications have been found to reduce the amount of community caregiving that older adults need when staying in their own homes. What modifications you might need for your home depends on your specific situation.
This short video shows some ideas for common home modifications:
What’s the Ideal Home for a Retiree?
Southern Living considered many house plans in its collection and concluded that 1,500 square feet is the perfect size for a home for retirement. It’s large enough to host events with family and friends, but still small enough to be manageable with no wasted space.
The key, according to Southern Living, is to have larger, open spaces that can serve multiple purposes, such as a combined kitchen/dining area, and maximizing use of outdoor areas with a covered patio or screened porch. Natural lighting can make the place seem bigger. Add smart home technologies that make the home low-maintenance, and you have the perfect home for your retirement.
This is just one magazine’s opinion. The perfect home for your retirement is the one that fits your needs and makes you happy.