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When I bought a house for retirement I did not think about appreciation at all since I plan to die in this house and don't expect to have to worry about if it goes up or down.
If this is to be your Last house then that is less of a concern.
This is how I view it. I have no children or heirs. I don't care what happens with the house once I die
Very well said. While many people do have the benefit of a house appreciating in value, a home should not be looked at as an investment vehicle. Particularly not a property that is purchased with at least the intention of being your final home.
For me, the value of owning a home in retirement is the cash flow aspect. Yes, taxes can go up and there will be some maintenance costs, but those are still going to be relatively small compared to the unknowns of rent increases or even being put in a position of an undesired move if a landlord's own situations or plans change.
I'm not going to be around to reap the benefit of any appreciation anyway, it's all about having a home that is comfortable and livable for me in my final years, with whatever value in it eventually going to my son. It's all a windfall for him as he won't have invested anything in it anyway.
As expensive as CA is, I’ve got about as much cost certainty as can be expected. Property tax increases capped, low maintenance because of the mild winters.
When I lived in NH, the town’s garage burned down and the damn voters replaced it with the Taj Mahal. Taxes went up 1500 in one year. The biggest housing cost uncertainty for me is homeowners insurance. With the wildfires, that will undoubtedly go up. Though it’s still less than what I paid in NH on a similar sized home.
When I bought a house for retirement I did not think about appreciation at all since I plan to die in this house and don't expect to have to worry about if it goes up or down.
If this is to be your Last house then that is less of a concern.
I agree. My son will get my house and with no mortgage, it is all profit for him.
I think it's a little silly to assume prices will never go up in Scottsdale. What timeframes are you looking at? If you're looking at property in Phoenix area I would guess you realize it's been a pretty wild ride over the past ~15 years. There was a peak in prices in 2006. In the few years leading up to that I believe prices doubled and even more in some zip codes. Then prices dropped for 5 years before the recovery started. Someone who bought within a year or two of that peak is probably still under water, but that was a massive bubble.
We bought a house in Gilbert in 2012, about a year after the bottom in the market, and it's appreciated 30%-40% since then. Sounds like you are being smart about it. Just don't buy something with a strange floorplan, next to huge power lines, etc.
People keep saying I shouldn't worry about appreciation in the house I will die in.
I'm not sure it will be our last house. I think there are many more adventures ahead. For now I am concentrating on places that don't have stairs. I'm wondering what the heck was in the minds of the one couple who designed their house to have a sunken master bedroom and then three marble steps up to the tub.
So no, I don't think of it in terms of "last house". Though if we get the one with the weird master bedroom it might be, the first time I slip and fall getting out of the tub.
We have seen some truly bizarre designs. Many "what were they thinking" moments.
Here's one for your delectation. We drove by; the exterior and grounds are beautifully done. But the inside, oh the inside... You have to see it.
I've always wanted a gilded antelope skull over my bed.
Seriously....just the utility bills would be way over my head. And I don't want 7K sf of house cleaning plus the yard and the pool. Yikes! But to each his own!
Glad your H finally agreed to move. Keep looking and you will find what you want.
I don't think you will ever find a house that will appreciate like they do in California. But homes in Arizona are not losers. High demand because people want to retire/live there. They will still appreciate.
We’ve been shopping for a second, “retirement” home in Scottsdale, Arizona. The area was chosen for livability and for similarity in terms of services offered to where we currently live in Silicon Valley.
There are currently 3500 homes listed for sale here. Worse, Scottsdale is not completely built out with SFHs the way our area is. If you look at historical prices paid on a variety of properties, it seems that few will make any money when they sell. Some take a loss.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’ve never bought a property without a reasonable expectation of gain in the long run. I don’t expect the crazy price increases we get at home, where there’s a shortage of houses. But we both like the area and the house styles.
What would you do? Would you just decide you won’t care if the new house never appreciates in value?
Some real-estate markets are good and some are not so good for appreciation.
We moved away from just outside the Washington, DC area (Virginia side). The four houses we purchased and sold at a very good profit. Some was timing and luck over about 30 years.
We moved into our vacation home a few hundred miles south. That property has appreciated but at a very very slow pace.
My brother in law and wife purchased a SFH in the Midwest around 2006, they paid $228,000. Today 2018 the property is not worth what they paid for it.
If it's what you want, go for it. I would look for a good deal. If the market is so overloaded you should be able to buy at under market prices. Hope for the best but expect slow appreciation.Good luck!
Out of curiousity I looked up the Case Shiller indexes for LA and Phoenix. Over 25 years Phoenix metro area homes have averaged 3.9% price increase, while LA metro area averaged 4.6%.
It's a little hilarious to see Scottsdale referred to as flyover country, as if it's some backwater that will be devoid of people in 50 years.
You can never know what may
happen in the real estate market
Get what you want, later may not occur
I agree.
I have known a lot of 'flippers' [people who buy a house intending on flipping it for a profit], some did okay, others lost money. I know a bunch of people who got caught in the Recession and were left with mortgages larger then their houses were worth.
Buy what you need, let your heirs worry about it in 30 years.
For my retirement, I bought bare land and built the house that we wanted. We have no intention of selling.
I never invest in anything that I don't think will increase in value. I would probably just rent and put the $ into equities at this time.
We may hope we are investing in a "final home", but you never know. There are numerous posts on CD regarding parents who can no longer care for their home and need to sell it and move closer to their kids and/or to pay for a care facility. These facilities are extremely expensive! Like 6-8K per month per person! Many need to use the proceed from their homes to pay for this due to other retirement funds having dwindled significantly by that time.
It is not an investment. If you like it buy it and use it.
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