Moving? Should You Buy or Rent?

                                                                   

By Jane Bryant Quinn, AARP Bulletin

To rent or buy again? That is the question retirees face when it comes to real estate and downsizing.
It's zero hour. You've decided to sell your house and move to something smaller or to another town. As a homeowner, you naturally think of buying again — a house or maybe a condo. But should you? Maybe you should rent instead.

Ownership is solidly entrenched among retirees. They weren't even shaken by the real estate collapse. From the peak of the housing bubble in 2006 to the present, the rate of homeownership for people 65 and up has held steady at about 80 percent, the Census Bureau reports. It runs to over 90 percent among married couples in which one person is 65 or older.

For those 55 to 64, however, it's another story. The portion who own the place where they live has dropped to 76 percent, compared with 81 percent in 2006. Some in this age group switched to renting because they couldn't manage a mortgage anymore. Others, however, rent by choice.


That leads to the question of how to dispose of the proceeds when you sell a house. You can use part or all of it to buy another house or condo, with or without a mortgage. That pot of money is now tied up. You could tap it at some point in the future, by taking a home equity loan or reverse mortgage, but that probably isn't your plan.

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Ways women over 50 can achieve financial fitness before retirement Part 1

                                                                                   

Today's post will be the beginning of a few blooms. My thoughts are going into overtime!

Let's look at older women in the U.S. and money.

Income & Employment

The following is from Nation Counseling on Aging

The average older adult receiving Supplemental Security Income gets just $433 each month. (Social Security Administration)

Older women typically receive about $4,000 less annually in Social Security than older men due to lower lifetime earnings, time taken off for caregiving, occupational segregation into lower wage work, and other issues. Older women of color fare even worse.

Over 25 million Americans aged 60+ are economically insecure—living at or below 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL) ($29,425 per year for a single person). These older adults struggle with rising housing and health care bills, inadequate nutrition, lack of access to transportation, diminished savings, and job loss. For older adults who are above the poverty level, one major adverse life event can change today’s realities into tomorrow’s troubles.

Poverty Measures

22% of married Social Security recipients and 47% of single recipients aged 65+ depend on Social Security for 90% or more of their income. (Social Security Administration)

More accurate measures of economic well-being—including Wider Opportunities for Women’s Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy’s Senior Financial Stability Index—show millions of older adults struggling to meet their monthly expenses, even though they’re not considered “poor” because they live above the FPL, which is $11,770 for a single elder.

In my next post, we'll look at "6 ways women over 50 can achieve financial fitness before retirement" information from pbs.org