Again within the Nineties, some associates got here up with the thought — in all probability after a few beers — of buying an house constructing and changing it into an previous people’ dwelling, however only for us. Our mother and father have been starting to age out of their houses, and we have been anxious that sometime we would find yourself residing with strangers who won’t share our style in music. We even obtained so far as figuring out a constructing on Capitol Hill earlier than extra rational minds prevailed and we deserted the plan.
Lengthy-term care prices are staggering in Washington. In 2021, the median annual value for assisted residing was $72,000 for a non-public room and almost $80,000 for in-home care. That doesn’t embrace the price of medical care. My mom lived to be 100 and spent her final years in an grownup household dwelling the place the yearly value was greater than $96,000.
My mom had owned a house, which she traded for a condominium when the maintenance on the home turned an excessive amount of. She ultimately offered the condominium and moved right into a retirement dwelling, and later into the grownup household dwelling. The financial savings from the sale of her dwelling allowed her a level of independence and dignity till the top.
Within the absence of long-term care insurance coverage, many people will fund our later years this fashion, by means of the fairness in our houses. In 1986, my husband and I have been capable of buy a house in Ballard for $78,000 utilizing an FHA mortgage. It was a stretch for us on the time, even with our two salaries. Adjusted for inflation, that dwelling would have value us $225,000 in right this moment’s {dollars}. The median dwelling worth in Seattle right this moment is round $900,000, out of attain for many younger households.
As we speak, my dwelling would promote for over 1,000,000 {dollars}. Did I “earn” that fairness? Not by any enhancements I made to the house itself. Land worth has skyrocketed in the previous couple of years because the demand for housing in Seattle has far outpaced the constructing of recent houses.
A part of the rationale there are so few houses on the market is that older owners like me, who wish to downsize from our three-bedroom single-family houses, have restricted choices. The mayor’s One Seattle Complete Plan permits for the constructing of extra center housing sorts, together with duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, row homes and stacked flats. However our present zoning legal guidelines and laws are inclined to incentivize the constructing of townhomes, that are normally three or 4 side-by-side multistory houses and are inappropriate for individuals who wish to age in place.
A significantly better choice could be condos, or stacked flats, each of which are inclined to have one unit on a flooring, however present laws make these disadvantageous to construct, and comparatively few have come to market in Seattle prior to now 20 years.
As seniors, we ought to be advocating for center housing choices that can enable us to age in place, as a substitute of being locked into our present houses. This can require modifications in zoning and housing insurance policies that enable for elevated density and several types of houses in additional neighborhoods. My associates and I could not have realized our dream of the Nineties, however we don’t must be chained to our houses, draining our financial savings on repairs till our children take away our automobile keys and transfer us into senior residing. We could possibly be residing in a barely denser neighborhood the place we might stroll to the grocery retailer, eating places and occasional retailers, and hop on public transportation to maneuver across the metropolis. It simply takes a bit of inventive planning and a few vital modifications in housing coverage.
