Across the nation, many baby boomers are entering that next stage in life-the kids are gone and the large family home is superfluous. Kim Stanley started noticing this trend at open houses she hosted as a real estate agent.
“Upscale condos attract a lot of baby boomers. Their families have left and they have huge homes, but they’re looking at making a transition in their lives. The condo lifestyle is appealing or they’re curious about it,” Stanley said.
She learned people were “frustrated because they wanted a simpler, easier lifestyle but they were overwhelmed by the amount of work they perceived it would take to make it happen,” she said.
Barbara and John are two such people who want to scale back. Barbara, 70, said she felt burdened by her possessions until meeting Stanley.
“Stanley is very thorough at covering all of the bases that I was worrying about,” Barbara said. “I would stay awake at night and worry, and when she came along it was like God tapped me on the shoulder.”
Downsizing also comes into play for the boomer caring for an aging parent, and they have decided to either remodel their current home or move to a home with easier access to accommodate the health needs of their older parent. These scenarios create a need for downsizing, where it’s getting rid of stuff to make room for their parents’ things or reducing the size of home.
She provides two levels of services. One level is diagnosis and planning. In both cases, she meets with the clients to discuss their goals and time frame.
Photo by orvaratli.
Jaclyn on November 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
this is so true of so many people. My parents did the same thing, after all us kids were moved out of the house they downsized to a house fit enough for two people. yes, it bothered us to not have the childhood house anymore, but at the end of the day we are all happy that our parents are happy and are where they want to be in life and don’t have a huge house to take care of!
CoolProducts on November 5th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
My parents live in a 7,000 sq ft behemoth on 5 acres of land. I absolutely love the area and home, but it really was designed to better suite a house with kids always having friends over, throwing parties, etc. I honestly cannot see them sticking around there after my brother moves out. It’s sad, but I am also worried that it will be very inconvenient because of the state of the housing market.
Have you noticed any effect of the housing market on ones ability to downsize?
Cassy on November 5th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Having a great and beautiful home to live with of a certain family is the main thing…but we have to consider so many thing’s in searching for a nice place to live..one is to make sure that the family will be very comfortable and can able to have the commodities that the family needs, and need also to look at the community it has and the safety the family can has