Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  Retirement isn’t just a milestone. It's the beginning of something really special. After years of hard work, it’s finally time to slow down, explore new passions, and live life on your own terms. But with this exciting chapter comes some big choices. And one of the biggest is this: does your current home still make sense for the lifestyle (and budget) you want in this next phase of life? That’s an especially important question right now. Just in the past five years, the cost of living has jumped by  23%  according to the  Bureau of Labor Statistics  (BLS). That’s based on the  Consumer Price Index  (CPI), which is how changes are tracked in the average price consumers pay for goods and services ( see graph below ): When you’re thinking about how to make your retirement savings last, those rising expenses matter. And if you’ve started to wonder whether your money will stretch as far as you need it to go, don’t worry. You may have more control than you...

Opportunities exist for a subset of homeowners, possibly in their 60's to 70's, who want to downsize to smaller homes for convenience, less maintenance, change of lifestyle, or to save money.   These homeowners are more likely to have large equities and will not feel the same constraints that are keeping younger owners in their homes due to the substantial increase in mortgage rates in the past year. In some cases, there may be enough equity in their relinquished home to pay cash for the replacement.   In other situations, the loan-to-value may be so low that even with higher mortgage rates, it won't be as expensive as purchasing with a minimum down payment. Some downsizers may be moving from a high-cost area to a lower-cost area where they can get more home for the dollar and may even be able to free up cash for investment or special projects. It is more likely that older homeowners are living in a property above the median price.   If a seller has a $750,00...