Downsizing - The Wave is Just Starting

This article was in a recent edition of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel.  After reading it, I realize I'm going to have to come up with a solution to those two sets of dishes now taking up space in my kitchen cabinets!

Baby Boomers Trending Toward Simpler Way of Life
By Nancy A Herrick, Special to the Journal Sentinel
January 23, 2015

Judy Hearst calls it her "30-year cleanse."

That's what she and her husband, Jack, went through several years ago when they moved to Fox Point from the home in Glendale where they had lived for three decades and raised their children.

"You're going through everything you've accumulated, trying to decide what's important to take and what you're never going to use again," she says.

"In many ways, it represents a time capsule of your life. The sorting and the clearing out can be hard, physical work. And emotional. But for me the challenge was entirely worth it."

Hearst is a member of the baby boom generation, the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who are reaching a turning point. Millions of them are making housing choices that better fit their life going forward, and as a result are going through a downsizing, right-sizing or simplifying process.

"The boomer population has always set the trends, and now they've set a course for a more streamlined life," says Sheryl Connelly, trend analyst and futurist for Ford. "This generation is now trending toward a simpler way of life."

The National Association of Realtors 2014 Generational Trends Report found that many baby boomers aren't content to stay put. Some 30% of homebuyers are boomers, about the same percentage as GenY (31%) and GenX (30%) whose families, and incomes, are growing. Another report, The Conference Board's 2012 Consumer Confidence Survey, found that 29% of Americans ages 50 to 65 say they plan to move in the next five years.

Hearst, vice president and regional manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, has not only experienced it firsthand. She calls it one of today's major trends in real estate.

"I'm seeing many people moving from larger houses to smaller homes that require less maintenance, freeing up their time for other things," she says. "Or they're moving from two-story homes to ranch homes in anticipation of what may be down the road.

"I also am seeing many people moving to more urban areas or inner suburban communities from outlying suburbs because they want a walkable community or to live closer to where the action is."

FINDING THE 'RIGHT' SIZE

So just as many baby boomers helped their parents downsize and move to smaller homes or senior living choices, they're anticipating the process as well, though sometimes earlier and for different reasons. The National Association of Realtors report found that the biggest reason respondents ages 59 and older gave for selling their home and moving was to move closer to friends and family (52%). Another 34% decided to move because their home was too large.

"I like the term 'right-sizing' instead of 'downsizing' because there are so many options out there," says Nancy Miller, an interior designer in Milwaukee at formfunc.net/ who has been through the process herself and also helps clients take that step.

"It's about whether your current environment meets your needs and how your next environment can even better meet your needs.

"Some are choosing condos, townhouses, apartments, smaller houses or senior living," she says. "At what point is it downsizing vs. just moving where you want to be and want to live?"

And the Winner Is....

Two houses in contention, but I can only buy one...

4002
 

3982

And the winner is -- 3982.  I am closing on its purchase on Monday - finally!  It took a ridiculously long amount of time to get to this point.

I really really liked 4002, but in the end, I was swayed by the list of recent improvements that the owners of 3982 had undertaken: new siding on house and garage; new concrete patio in back yard; new privacy fence to screen patio; new furnace and AC unit in 2013; beautifully refinished hardwood floors in the bedrooms; newer architectural style shingle roofs on house and garage; new vinyl plank flooring in the kitchen/dinette in a luscious dark cherrywood tone (that clashes horribly with the oak finished cabinets); newly remodeled main floor bathroom; updated kitchen; new front and rear exterior doors; new windows; new sliding patio door with steps down to the backyard (not shown on any of the listing photos, but if you look in through the picture window above you can see straight back through the living room to the patio doors in the dinette). 

I still have tweaks of panic now and then that I bought the wrong house (4002 has many appealing aspects), but to back out now would be disastrous for the young couple buying my house, and the young couple selling me their house, and the people who are selling my sellers their house!  Just cannot do it.  My rational side tells me that I will have little to worry about for years to come in buying 3982, other than installing a new water heater in a couple of years and decommissioning the old chimney.  Oh, and the brick veneer across the front of the house needs to be "re-tied" to the studs in some places and the stone cap on the brick half wall underneath the bedroom windows needs to be reset.

So, I will live right next store to 4002 and be witness to see what the lucky person(s) who eventually move in do around the place; it is under contract but has been pending for months.  I believe the buyers cannot sell their house, or more likely, cannot sell their house for the money they need to afford to buy 4002. 

So, shortly I will be embarking on the next phase of my life -- that of living in a much smaller house and yards.  My hands are itching to get at it.  As you can see, 3982 doesn't have much curb appeal, and there is lots of painting and minor remodelling to do inside.  What a thing to take on nearly at my 63rd birthday.  Geez, Jan!