Housing Slump Postpones Moves to Retirement Communities

Thousands of retirees are having to postpone their planned moves to retirement communities – a different kind of housing crunch victim. Many have selected the active adult community or CCRC of their dreams, only to find a big catch – they can’t sell their primary residence, which is how they will fund their new home or entry fee into a CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community).

Topretirements has heard much anecdotal evidence from various CCRCs about this phenomenon. In fact many continuing care communities are experiencing a sales slowdown for this specific reason. Buyers are ready to move in, but they don’t have the cash on hand to complete the deal. Realtor Magazine recently wrote on the subject as well. One of the problems with the issue is many retirees only want to sell if they can realize 2005 type prices – accepting anything less seems like some sort of defeat. Unfortunately that is the state of the current market – prices are off at least 20% in many parts of the country, and probably won’t be headed higher for some time to come.