Real Estate
Author
USA Today
Title
New retirees often stay close to home
Created
Tuesday, Jun. 26, 2007
Link
www.azcentral.com
Content
New retirees often stay close to home Financial concerns, family ties spur decision to settle nearby USA Today Jun. 24, 2007 12:00 AM Bill and Rosemary Knapp had begun to envision retirement together. But where? During last year's Fourth of July holiday, they made their decision: They would retire close to home. After 29 happy years in the same colonial house in the town of Brick, N.J., the Knapps had decided to move. Bill, 60, who'd retired in 2002, and Rosemary, 59, with plans to retire in the next year, felt their neighborhood had changed. "It became young again," Bill said, "and we were looking to socialize in neighborhoods with people our own age." But the Knapps didn't want to forfeit all they knew and loved in southern New Jersey. They especially wanted to stay near their two children and six grandchildren. So next month, the Knapps will move into a gated active-retirement community with a clubhouse and two swimming pools. Happily, it's just 20 minutes away. The Knapps, along with millions of other retirees and soon-to-retire baby boomers, are retiring in place. Their decision defies a common myth: that a big proportion of U.S. retirees pull up stakes and migrate far from home, to golf course and beachfront communities in Arizona and Florida. Retiring near home, in fact, has long been the norm rather than the exception. An AARP analysis of census figures from 1990 and 2000 shows that nine of every 10 Americans 60 and older were living in the same county they'd lived in five years before the surveys were taken; more than three-quarters even stayed in the same house. In many cases, of course, retirees can't afford to move. But even for those who have the means to move to areas that cater to retirees, the desire to age in place near family and friends runs deep. "The great preferred choice is to stay where you are," said Charles Longino of the Reynolda Gerontology Program at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Locations within your state allow you to keep your ties to the place you were living in before, so you can visit grandkids." For many retirees in cold-weather Northern and Midwestern states, the impulse to bask in a retirement home with year-round sunshine is outweighed by the hassles associated with finding new friends, clubs and houses of worship - and living hundreds or thousands of miles from children and grandchildren. And even though today's baby boomers generally are wealthier than previous generations, experts believe the new generation of retirees (the oldest baby boomers turn 61 this year) won't defy the long-standing trend of staying close to home. That means that, as 79 million baby boomers start to retire, the number of people retiring in place will swell as never before. Dave Schreiner, a vice president for Pulte homes, parent company of Del Webb, says many of Del Webb's retirement villages in Arizona and California always were meant to serve the minority of retirees who seek a climate change. "What we started in the mid-'90s was to focus the business on the three-quarters that don't really want to relocate," Schreiner said. "We turned out development sites in fairly large population centers in the country. "It's perceived to be a trend, but, really, we were just catching up. There was a market there always; it was just a market that hasn't been served." Retiring in place, for millions, isn't a choice but a necessity, whether because of poor health or limited income or assets. In addition, with longevity rising, so are retirement's expenses. Many of today's 79 million baby boomers are facing retirements that could stretch for three or four decades. Given those longer life spans, new retirees must think hard about the financial consequences of paying to move across the country, with all the attendant startup costs. Soaring medical costs also make retiring in place a wise choice for many, given the costs and uncertainties associated with moving far away. Staying in place often is seen as a surer way to preserve a retirement nest egg for the long haul. Many retirees will downsize from large, expensive houses into cheaper, smaller homes and use the remaining cash from their home equity to pay for their lifestyle. This strategy appeals to many baby boomers, experts say, because of their higher comfort about debt. "Boomers have more debt in their homes than their parents did," said Elinor Ginzler, AARP's director of livable communities. "We have second mortgages."
