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<\/p>\nA majority of Canadian seniors polled by IPSOS on behalf of HomeEqutiy Bank are reluctant to downsize, believing their homes are the most reliable way to retire comfortably and age in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople taking out reverse mortgages with us are using that money for home care, which allows them to stay in their homes a little longer,\u201d said HomeEquity Bank CEO Steven Ranson. \u201cWe\u2019ve also done surveys in the past where people have reported feeling pressure to downsize, but to give up a place you have lived in for 30, 40 years to move into an unknown place doesn\u2019t make sense to a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most recent survey showed that 76% of respondents, all of whom are at least 55 years old, felt pressured to downsize even though they didn\u2019t want to. Forty-five percent of respondents believe accessing home equity should be part of their retirement planning, but only 28% would go through with it.<\/p>\n
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As COVID-19 has ravaged elderly care facilities, Canadian seniors are understandably circumspect about selling their homes only to downgrade into potentially perilous living conditions. Moreover, they would sacrifice autonomy\u2014not exactly a welcome prospect.<\/p>\n
Ranson says the latter factor rang true before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cCOVID or no COVID, we do these surveys all the time and 80% or more want to stay in their homes for as long as they can,\u201d he said. \u201cNot forever, but longer than they might otherwise be able to. Longer than society thinks is the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a booming housing market, finding a new home isn\u2019t as easy as it used to be. Even if seniors were to downsize from a single-family home into a condominium, being pulled into a bidding war would still be a distinct possibility in Canada\u2019s larger housing markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have to list your house, do you want people tracing through your house during a pandemic when you\u2019re in an age group that\u2019s most at risk?\u201d The process of finding a house is hard and you could potentially get into a bidding war. If you have a young family, you might have to, but if you don\u2019t, who wants to take that on?\u201d said Ranson. \u201cIt used to be that you could downsize and move into a condo because it\u2019s cheaper, but it\u2019s not true anymore. Condo prices have taken off in the last little while, and the odds are a condo is the price you currently have on a square footage basis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A majority of Canadian seniors polled by IPSOS on behalf of HomeEqutiy Bank are reluctant to downsize, believing their homes are the most reliable way to retire comfortably and age in place. \u201cPeople taking out reverse mortgages with us are using that money for home care, which allows them to stay in their homes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28873,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9145\/revisions\/28873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}