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Veda's avatar

I bought my 4 bedroom home in 2010 for 71k. It's in IL and part of the metro St. Louis area. The house was built in 1921 and needed, and still needs, so much work. The wallpaper and floors were from 1968, so there was tons of orange, green, and yellow. There's only one bathroom. I was a single mom with no child support making 33k/yr. as an attorney with massive student loans. But the mortgage, including insurance and taxes, was hundreds less than rent each month. It was a solidly working class neighborhood (but declining now). I'm married now and my child is almost off to college. We have more $ and think about moving....but why? We have finally updated flooring and ripped out wallpaper. We remodeled the kitchen and bathroom on our own. We got a new roof, new driveway, and new windows throughout these 14 years. Many times we were envious of family and friends in large, sprawling homes in nice neighborhoods over in St. Louis County. But, the house will be paid off in a few years and we're not house poor. Our child has stated they want to rent or buy the house some day because it's so full of love. That made me wildly happy. It made my jealousy of pools, huge homes, and beautiful neighborhoods recede. 😀

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Martha Menard, PhD's avatar

Ageism does indeed suck--75% of pre-retirees plan to work in retirement but only 25% actually do. When it comes to housing, a lot of seniors would like to sell that 3 bedroom/2 bath in the suburbs and downsize into a smaller (probably 1 level) home that is closer to the services they use. Personally, when my husband and I are ready to 100% retire, we'd like to sell our house and rent a 1-bedroom plus den type apartment that has a grocery store, coffee shop, and fun stuff to do like a weekly farmer's market within walking distance--we won't be driving much if at all by then.

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