Category: Active adult communities
The press has been filled with reports of financial troubles in the retirement housing and real estate markets.
Faced with unsold units, vacant lots and empty condos, the reaction of some active adult communities has been to try to expand their base. The obvious way to do that is to let in younger buyers. Many active adult communities are age-restricted to at least one resident who is at least 55 years of age. Typically, unless the community has at least 80% of its population 55+, they do not meet federal regulations that allow developments to exclude children. At the many other active adult communities that have no official age restrictions, the fact is that most of their residents are 55 or better.
On the one hand letting in younger buyers might be able to fill more units, but it could have ramifications on the other side. Existing residents, for example, often chose to live with people their own age; away from noisy children and rushing commuters. Neighboring towns that lobbied to attract these active adult communities feel betrayed, since the communities were let in with the expectation that their older
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Published on December 2, 2008
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Every so often US News & World Reports goes through its database and comes up with another "Top 10" List. This time their efforts have produced one dear to all tax-fearing hearts, the 10 most tax-friendly towns in America. After all, you can't do anything about federal taxes, but you can vote with your feet and move to a low tax town or city.
The US News list is an interesting one, will almost all of the towns in the west. Most made the list because there is no
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Published on December 2, 2008
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Most of the experts think that our economic mess could continue for the next few years. If you have just retired and are trying to figure out how to adjust to life with a smaller portfolio, this article might help with some perspective. That is, if you get over what was our first reaction to the crisis, wanting to just stay home and mope!
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Published on December 9, 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: General Retirement Issues
The conversion of the Topretirements weekly Best Places to Retire eNewsletter to a new email provider is now complete. Our new service should provide greater reliability and graphics - IF - you confirm your subscription. That's because our new provider (aweber) requires that every name from our subscription list confirm that they really intended to subscribe.
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Published on December 21, 2008
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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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