Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Dateline: Fort Myers and Miami, Florida. Your Topretirements editor is spending a few days in South Florida. Realizing that the region is one of the 3 hardest hit real estate markets in the country (along with Phoenix and Las Vegas), we wondered: what would this meltdown look like in person? Since retirement in the warm climes of South Florida is the dream of many a baby boomer, here is our report on what we can see by looking out the window, jogging through the streets, talking with folks, and reading the newspapers.
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Published on March 1, 2009
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
If you could buy your dream home and save $200,000 or more, would you be tempted? For many retirees, the news reports of homes selling for half what they were 3 years ago are interesting. In fact, in many areas of the country the prospect of a bargain-priced distress sale has become so attractive that sales of new homes have just about stopped. In case you are thinking about plunging in yourself, we have prepared some background on the issues involved in this topic for our Topretirements.com visitors.
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Published on February 22, 2009
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
It's not a contest anyone wants to win - whose housing crisis was the worst in 2008. The contenders: Phoenix, Las Vegas, South Florida - all with year over year price declines of 30% or more.
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Published on February 9, 2009
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
As 2008 draws to a close and fond memories of the holidays begin to recede, here's a wish for much better retirement and retirement community news next year.
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Published on December 26, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
Regardless of when the economy turns back around, the financial crisis has put just about everyone's retirement lifestyle picture a little bit askew. If there is any silver lining, it just might be that it forces us to look at the retirement paradigm in a new way.
Remodeling
Common wisdom and AARP surveys show that at least 80% of people would like to retire right where they live now. The problem is, most of us moved into our homes with different lifestyle requirements than what we have now. Whereas we were once looking for more room for our families, a smaller footprint (with reduced energy consumption and property taxes) might be more appropriate today. Another consideration is that our future mobility will not be what it once was. So if we are to stay in our homes, remodeling them to fit our future might be a good idea.
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Published on December 16, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
This is not to say that the bad news in housing, particularly for retirement communities, is over. But there have been some rays of good news popping up here and there. Thank goodness, we are tired of writing about the same old bad news!
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Published on October 28, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
It is one of our favorite recommendations – if you want to get a good deal in retirement real estate, stay away from the coasts. The 2008 Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index provides a pretty good illustration of the theory. The real estate brokerage firm makes an annual comparison…
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Published on September 10, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
If this headline about seller's remorse strikes you as a little bit of a non-sequitur, you wouldn't be alone. With the turmoil in South Florida's active adult and real estate market, you would think we should be talking about "buyer's remorse". That's the affliction that comes when people who bought a few years ago are under water with their mortgage - they owe more than what their home is worth.
Rafael Diaz could tell you all about it. Two years ago this Miami builder listed a brand new home near the University of Miami for $979,000. Today's listing price - $599,000. What's worse is that he turned down an offer of $770,000 just a year ago. What he told the New York Times says a lot of sellers remorse, "I should have taken it. ... I guess I was a little cocky...."
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Published on September 3, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
June 27 -- Identifying the bottom of a real estate cycle is a trick that is just about impossible to master. We at Topretirements have been exploring this question for over a year now, wondering if it is finally the right time to buy into a retirement community or active adult community. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer in sight. Today's New York Times article, "Retirees Find the Time May Be Right to Buy", examined this question, profiling the experiences several retirees had as they explored the retirement community real estate market.
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Published on June 27, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
May 30 -- For as complicated a question this is, it is amazing how strong the opinions are. The one thing that is clear is hindsight - if you lived in the markets hardest hit by the housing crisis over the last 2 years (Phoenix, Las Vegas, South Florida, and parts of California), renting would have been the superior option. Your living costs would have been lower, and you wouldn't have lost any capital.
Articles in the New York Times and Seekingalpha.com explored the issue this week. The Times article on "Committed Renter Decides to Buy" used the concept of rent/purchase ratio to try to get a handle on the question. The ratio is basically the price of a typical house divided by the annual rent - and the higher the number the more you should consider renting.
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Published on June 3, 2008
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