Many soon-to-be retirees aim to pay off their mortgages before leaving the workforce so they can kick off retirement without the stress of a monthly payment. And it makes sense. At a time in your life where money is about to become limited, eliminating any source of debt is a wise move. But rather than pay off your mortgage and call it a day, you may want to take that idea one step further by selling your home altogether.
While owning a home in retirement does make sense for some people, here are three good reasons not to do it.
1. Too many variable costs
When you’re living on a fixed income, you don’t want too many financial surprises. But owning a home comes with a number of variable costs, from rising real estate taxes to unexpected repairs. Even during periods where home values drop, property taxes still have a way of creeping up. In 2000, local governments across the U.S. collected an estimated $247 billion in real estate taxes, but by 2010, that figure reached $476 billion. If you hang on to your home in retirement, you can’t discount the possibility of seeing your property taxes climb year after year.
On top of that, the older a home gets, the more likely it is to need major repairs. Having to come up with, say, $10,000 on a whim to replace your heating system is easier said than done when you’re no longer working. Renting, by contrast, means paying a fixed amount for as long as your lease is in effect. And while you do face the possibility of seeing your rent go up year after year, those increases will likely be easier to absorb than a major home repair. In 2014, rental prices increased an average of 3.6% on a national level. While that’s not a small amount for someone on a tight budget, imagine you’re renting a place for $1,500 a month and get hit with that same increase. Yes, you’ll pay an extra $54 a month, or $648 throughout the year, which is a lot of money, but that’s nowhere near what it would cost to repair a foundation or replace a roof.
For retirees, the biggest advantage of renting is that it smooths out your costs and makes you less vulnerable to financial emergencies.
2. You’ll probably pay more for maintenance
Maintaining a home often takes a lot of work, and while you may be willing to put in the time, you may eventually find you don’t have the energy. The older you get, the more difficult it becomes to mow the lawn, weatherproof the deck, or patch up the roof. Chances are you’ll soon need a contractor or handyman to do that stuff for you, and those kinds of services don’t come cheap.
On the other hand, if you sell your home and move to a rental, you won’t have to worry about maintenance. And if you think renting will automatically be more expensive than owning, then you should take a closer look. Even if you’ve paid off your mortgage, your property taxes and maintenance expenses could cost nearly as much as a rental. And if that rental happens to come with a communal swimming pool that someone else is responsible for, even better.