How can downsizing from your current home save you money? Let’s explore …
Downsizing has been a popular option as many homeowners reach retirement age. But there are certainly other life changes that could make downsizing something for others to ponder on. For homeowners who have experienced a change in their lives or perhaps no longer feel their current house fits their new lifestyle change, may just see the benefit from downsizing as well.
A significant shift in your life circumstances often brings about change. Perhaps for those who are newly single, empty nesters, or recent retirees often find themselves thinking about their current living space and start to ponder over the idea of downsizing.
I bring this up now for two reasons …
Reason one – given where we are in the world of inflation, and how this has only made everything so much more expensive … saving money wherever we can does have a lot of appeal. This alone has gotten many thinking of more creative ways to saving money wherever they can. With that in mind, it might just be worthwhile to take a look at your current home and consider if downsizing could make sense for you.
Reason two – and what can make all this possible, is to consider the equity value so many have built up through the years – but quite honestly, in just over the last 2-3 years alone, home values have increased like we’ve never seen before, this primarily due to our housing inventory not meeting buyer demand. While the current market has calmed down a bit since the craze of the market over the last few years, what still rings true, is it is still leaning towards being a seller’s market – hint, hint. We are still seeing multiple offers on properties if priced well, due to supply still not meeting buyer demand.
Getting back to savings … when you think about cutting down on your spending, odds are you think about your everyday purchases, like groceries and other goods and services, but when you downsize your house, you often end up downsizing the bills that come along with it, like your mortgage payment, energy costs, and other costs associated with maintaining the home.
A smaller home typically will mean lower bills and less upkeep. Now, let’s take a moment and think again about the equity value that has been building up in your home that can make all this cost savings possible. If you’ve been in your house for a while, odds are you’ve developed a considerable amount of equity. Your home equity is an asset that you can then use towards the purchase of your next home that will better suit your needs of today. And if you are real lucky, you can buy that home with cash, from the equity gains from your current home. … get the picture 🙂
So, if you’re thinking about downsizing, ask yourself these few questions:
• Do the original reasons why I bought my current house still hold true, or have my needs changed since then?
• Do I really need and want the space I have right now, or could somewhere smaller be a better fit?
• What are my housing expenses right now, and how much do I want to try to save by downsizing?
• And then lastly, what could downsizing mean, and do for me as I think forward on the possibilities?
Once you know the answers to these questions, and you think you want to delve a little deeper into what your options are, given today’s market – give me a call. As a trusted real estate advisor, I can speak to the current market, provide a comparable market analysis on your home so you have a good understanding of what value you hold in your current home today, that may make all things possible, and then how best to position your home that will give you that savings/win on your downsize. And then lastly, helping you to find the best location and size of your next home when you move forward.
In short … you need to know where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there. To do that, you need to have a plan. That’s where I come in …
Laura Cruger
The Key To Your Real Estate Success
Helping buyers and sellers achieve their real estate goals