Will baby boomers hold onto their houses because it looks like

[applegrove]

housing will be doing a double dip? Or will most of them just suffer the financial loss so they can move to where they want to be retired. Anyone have any firsthand knowledge? I know my parents held onto their house until they were in their late 70s because it was fully paid for and they liked the garden. But times were good when they sold. 3 1/2 years ago. Remember there will be 10,000 people a day retiring, starting Jan 1, and it will go on for 19 years. So how long will house prices be low? All 19 years?

[Skittles]

1. the early baby boomers will be OK

it's the later ones that will be truly fucked

[applegrove]

2. I was born in 1965. I've gotten the wrong end of the stick my whole life in terms

of job market and such. And when I plan to retire, in my 70s, they will likely be begging for people like me to keep working. Such is life for being born at the end of a boom.

[Skittles]

3. started earlier than that

I'm a '57 babe and feel NOTHING in common with those first baby boomers

[WCGreen]

4. Me too...

I'm a 57 as well...

[truedelphi]

7. On the other hand, your being born in 1965 means by the time

You were an adult, it probably was really difficult for you to even think of joining the military. You had the Vietnam years of protest as part of history to help you understand the USA needs you for war, only because its Defense Contractors need their profits. People my age, some of them learned that the hard way.

[Kennah]

9. A boomer born in 1965?

I haven't read the regs recently, but I was born in 1967. I believe you and I are both officially Gen-Xers.

Retirement? I called the SSA, and they have a web app online that let's you project your retirement age. I tried it, and the projected retirement age I got was: DEATH

[abelenkpe]

8. Parents are early boomers

They went through bankruptcy last year and my sister is trying to sell her house so she can move herself and her three kids into my parents home in an effort to keep my parents house. They refinanced several times so they still have a mortgage. Kinda worried my sister won't be able to sell her home or find someone willing to rent it and take over the mortgage. Of course none of them tell me these things as they are too proud and don't want me to worry since I live so far away anyway. My brother filled me in over the holidays.
We do live in interesting times!

[applegrove]

13. Aw that is really tough Abe.

[XemaSab]

20. My mom's one of the first boomers

She only bought a house 10 years ago, and things aren't looking good. :(

[HughBeaumont]

30. yepz.

These financial self-help books gall me to no end, but somehow they still sell; the plans they have drawn up usually depend on the right circumstances. There can never be layoffs. There can never be triple digit emergencies or repairs at the start of the savings. There can never be a major illness. You have to buy the right house. You have to live on the extreme cheap. You must get a 8-11% return each and every year without fail. You must put away at least 100 to 200 dollars away every month and compound it. There can never even be ONE landmine.

We've been sold a moldy bill of goods.

The Boomers were allowed to retire, but as they've seen, it's not at all comfortable. Many are postponing retirement and still working because their bills and medical expenses are too high and their wages haven't matched the skyrocketing cost of living. That's why it only applied to those who . . . had little to no landmines. It appears that having no landmines is becoming a lottery in itself.

I think the WWII generation was the last generation that was allowed to retire comfortably, and the reason for that is that they were the last generation which had a reasonable cost of living with a wage to match. They were the last to have a reasonable tax structure to assure a boring, smooth economic flow of consumption and production rather than the boom, BUBBLE, CRASH casino economics we've been nailed with. They weren't, for the most part, affected by Asia or Europe, because they were either in a state of rebuilding or still backwater third-worlds with no modernization. They had pensions and benefits guaranteed, whereas now the corporate leaders shifted all responsibility for our investments and medical needs on us.

We've been had.

[SoCalDem]

5. We are stuck..with a capital S, so

we are remodeling. We had planned to sell in a couple & use the profit (HAHAHA) to pay cash for something smaller.. (a nice manufactured home was what I had hoped for)

but that will not happen now, so we will be rattling around our 4 BR until the paramedics haul us out in body bags:(

[Contrary1]

10. Looking about the same for us...

We're in a 4 bedroom tri-level. We figure that once the steps become too dangerous for us, we will turn the formal dining room into a bedroom.

We had hoped for a much smaller one level home on a couple acres outside the city.

But, barring some terrible unforeseen situation, we will have a roof over our heads, and for that I am truly grateful.

[Divernan]

12. I'll be staying in my little brick ranch house - everything on one floor

except the garage & laundry room. Some elderly neighbors in the same situation got one of those chair/lift thingies installed in/on(?) the stairwell to their basement, & it worked well for them.

Younger people I know who've lost their homes to foreclosure/bankruptcy express no desire to buy another residence in the foreseeable future (10 years at least).

[Mimosa]

22. Ranch house designs beat McMansions every time.

Aesthetically I never care much for ranch houses. But for the needs of older people and for energy efficiency 1 story ranch houses are great!

[mrmpa]

23. It's a great style of home to age into

I bought 7 years ago, I'll be carrying this mortgage into my retirement years. I bought a one floor condominium, the only bad thing is that there's a bad management company and the maintenance fee was just raised 7.5%. The fee takes care of my gas, water, sewage, use of pool, gym, sauna & spa. My mom moved in with me and she pays this fee + electric as her share, it's less than $500. which is a lot less than if she rented on her own. Once mom is gone, it will be my responsibility and if the fee stays the same, + my mortgage, my expenses will be about $1100 a month. That's a big chunk of my retirement funds. But I'm thinking of a program the state has, where you "foster" a mentally challenged adult, the current payment for doing this is about $1500 a month. This of course has to pay for food & other household expenses, but it would be very helpful. It will be a way to stay in my home during my "senior" years.

[JVS]

6. Most will hold on because retirement is an obsolete concept. If you own it, keep it.

Only relatively rich people sell off and move in my experience.

[IMATB]

21. Not in all cases

We've moved 3 times. Transfer. We still had to try and sell our home but after 3 months, the company bought it. Sounds good but in reality, it's hell.

I hope I never go through another move like that. Even though I don't like living here, we would retire here.

[SheilaT]

11. It's going to depend entirely on the

specific circumstances of the specific boomers.

[PufPuf23]

14. I am 57.

I am at risk because of no income but assets and medical problems after divorces and an Estate that I was a victim.

I was a high achiever until 1996 when I home hospiced and administered my father's unique (not that large but taxed at 40% for everything over $600,000) Estate. I lived far away (another State but hospiced my Dad and was responsible for gifts obver he years to my relatives and well over half of the Estate value in working with my Dad for the family since my Moms's death in 1979). My GOP and Christian relatives (including the County Counsel and 30 year Chief of Police of the 2nd largest city in my home county) involved themselves to the the point of perjury in my Dad's Estate over a period of 4 plus years. I ended the Estate by threatening to be arrested for the only time in my life by chaining myself to the courthouse with my father's records of 40 years and what had been withheld from from the court by four lawyers that neglected to tell me their relation to my BIL and the other lawyers over 40 years. In the aftermath the California State Bar suggested I go to the DA over criminal conspiracy, a DA I had met socially and and been friends since HS with my BIL My BIL was Chief of Police and Promise Keeper leader and not trusted by my Dad but I was too idealistic even in my mid-40s to listen. I divorced my wife by my choice with a more than kind settlement when the Estate settled.

My girlfriend post the marriage I dumped for cause yet she warranted a Kos post/diary and I was proud of her accomplishments but would not take her back after our breakup because she cheated on me. She committed suicide by hanging in May 2010. She had married again after moving to be near me and married a local. We had dated 6 months after we met where I thought she was divorced but it was a lie, she still lived with her husband and kids and her sister covered for her. I found the truth and but despite that lived together 2.5 yrs when her husband pur her in the street and made a big move to my home town for a fresh start. She cheated again and I dumped her for good. She messed with her 2nd husband's head so much he called me and said he was OK with her to come back to me (that I did not want). Her Mom was a stripper/hooker and meth dealer that married 7 times and died of a brain hemmorage at 51. My exe became a child of the court at 14 because of incest with her stepfather but after 2 children gained a BA in Accounting (and she was smart and fun but a serial liar). She was only 46 and had 3 grandchildren when she died last Spring. This has screwed with my head when I already had enough problems of my own.

[applegrove]

15. Oh I'm so sorry.

[SheilaT]

27. Oh, my.

Stories like this prove that truth really is stranger than fiction. If you were to try to put all of this in a novel, I expect a publisher would make you take half of everything out because it would all seem too improbable.

[Warpy]

16. My house will be attractive to some retirees

because it's in the desert southwest, it's small, and it's close to everything. There is even room in the back yard for a pool. Houses in my immediate area are still selling. It's the trophy houses on the edge of the city that aren't moving, along with houses in the far suburbs and exurbs.

While the price might dip below what I paid for it in 1996, about 60% of what it's worth on paper now, it is not going to go to zero and whatever I get for it will be subtracted from everything put into it and will likely still turn out to be less than rent would have been over the same period.

The reason there is going to be a double dip, or a crash after a slight leveling out, is because of the huge amount of shadow inventory the banks are holding off the market in an attempt to hold prices up. They can't afford to do that forever, and when they start to dump it, prices will drop.

[Dappleganger]

17. We've been trying to sell the family home for a year.

We have lowered the price significantly, have had it staged and had a video and great pics taken. It's just sitting there but if it keeps going on, we'll have to take on renters. Our father really needs to the money so he can go into an assisted living center.

[upi402]

18. I have my last house for sale, I'm a late boomer

The others sold to get child custody after a divorce, injury, etc
The point is, very little money is left. I bought gold when it was $700+ to hedge. Got ridiculed for it too.

I'll get what I can -if I can even sell. And we'll leave the country. I figure it will get pretty damn ugly here, in the absence of opposition to corporatism. Look at Argentina and Central America and then picture the rednecks with guns in place of quick to sing and dance brown people.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

19. irony is...

...when the generation that fucked up the world is worried about their future and not that of those they've fucked in years to come.

[eridani]

24. Boomers should be checking into house sharing plans

Free or cheap rent for younger people (or possible rent to buy setups) in return for assistance with chores.

[old mark]

25. We both retired early, and own our small, old house outright. We have no plans

to move to any "retirement community", and have made many changes in our home to make it easier to live in when we get really old.


mark

[Hannah Bell]

26. some of the 70 million are going to die before they retire. just to let you know.

one of my friends died two days ago at 58 in a freak accident.

so that's now 69.999999 million.

[mainer]

28. Property taxes is going to be a deciding factor for some

They may own their houses out-right, but if they can't afford skyrocketing property taxes, they may be forced to sell.

[Lars39]

29. Many states have tax relief programs for the elderly, disabled

and disabled vets. Some states are very good at promoting the programs and making sure everyone knows about it, and some states don't. Worth looking into.
Tax relief is written into the TN Constitution.