For many retirees, home's too sweet to leave
by Adam Edelman, USA TODAY, with expert Lawrence Eric Davidow. From USA Today

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 South 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," says Charles Longino of the Reynolda Gerontology Program at Wake Forest University. "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 are generally wealthier than previous generations, experts believe that 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.

Having caught on, developers have been building socially centered, amenity-filled retirement villages throughout the country, including in urban and rural pockets from Colorado to Philadelphia. 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 were always 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 says. "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."

Now Pulte and other developers are helping retirees like the Knapps resettle down the road, instead of across the nation, in developments in the Northeast, Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions. Pulte has opened 53 Del Webb active-adult retirement communities since 2001, not only in the Sun Belt but also in such states as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois. Two more such communities are scheduled to open later this year.

The Knapps will move into a one-story house in River Pointe, a new Del Webb retirement village in Manchester, not far from the Jersey Shore.

Retirees who decide they want to stay put invoke any number of reasons. They include:

1: Putting family first

The top reason people 60 and older choose not to move far away is because their children or extended family live nearby, according to AARP research. Other reasons include an affinity for their home or job opportunities in the area. (Many seniors work part time after they retire.)

Some retirees, though, will buy smaller houses or move into retirement communities to be around people their age. When the Knapps move, they'll still have their two children and six grandchildren — plus five siblings — all within 30 miles.

"We're absolutely going to make family a big part of retirement," says Bill Knapp, who retired as a general manager from New Jersey Transit in 2002. "My sister and her husband are our best friends. They live in another community 2 miles from me. If I didn't want to keep my family a part of it, I could've looked somewhere else.

"We're both New Jersey-born and bred, and we like living here," he adds. "Even if I had all the money, I'd still probably stay in this area."

Lawrence Davidow, a former president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, says he's struck by the extent to which a couple's ties to their loved ones affect their decision about where to retire. "They don't want to be gypped out of their experience of seeing their grandchildren grow up," he says.

Erik and Helen Nelson live in a retirement community in Lansdale, just outside of Philadelphia. It's only a few miles from their old home in Fort Washington, where they lived for 34 years. They work nearly full time at their family foundation but hope to reduce their hours over the next 10 years.

For Erik, the idea of missing the milestone moments in his first grandson's childhood is unthinkable.

"The biggest factor (for retiring in the area) is family," he says. "The children. And it's being close to the grandchildren. Our immediate family are all in this area."

Another consideration, Erik says, was the simple desire to enjoy all the seasons of the year.

"I like the change of seasons," he says. "Neither one of us wanted to go to a place where it was pretty much the same season all around."

2: Strong community ties

Mary Ann Hogan, a 59-year-old elementary school librarian from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., plans to retire within two years. She became eligible for her pension four years ago. But with her mortgage nearly paid, and her job satisfaction still high, she's decided to work a few more years.

Hogan has begun thinking about how she and her husband, David, a former U.S. Postal Service supervisor, will retire. Because of her attachment to their neighborhood, she's sure they'll stick around.

"We have a lot of ties to the community," Hogan says. "There's no push for us to move away, because of those ties. Living here, I've gotten to know so many people, and I wouldn't want to leave it."

Hogan is active with the local Girl Scout troop, serves as a trustee of the local historical society and belongs to the Altar Guild at her church. Her husband is active with volunteer firefighters and the Dobbs Ferry Boy Scout troop.

"There's definitely no big draw for us to go to Florida or the Carolinas. Neither one of us has a need to travel or move elsewhere. It's a question of knowing where we are and having a routine and knowing the area."

For the many retirees who have nurtured tight social circles at local senior centers, churches and book clubs, the idea of picking up and leaving holds scant appeal.

"People want to stay where they are," says Elinor Ginzler, AARP's director of livable communities. "It's all about having that reality of staying in the house and the community to have the best possible quality of life."

Indeed, those who retire in place tend to be more active in their communities than those who move away, according to a fall 2005 survey by AARP. About 50% of long-term residents polled who were 60 and older said they were at least somewhat involved in their community. By contrast, among those who had moved away, only a third were involved in their community, the survey found.

"Your home has a lot of intimate qualities," notes Peter Bell of the National Aging in Place Council, an advocacy group for seniors. "You have your memories; you don't have to downsize and get rid of personal belongings. And it's near a doctor or house of worship you're used to dealing with."

At the Altar Guild at her church, Mary Ann Hogan helps take care of the building and run bake sales.

"I don't think I'd miss the activities as much I'd miss the people, if I were to retire elsewhere. I'd miss it tremendously."

For some, there's also a fear of uncertainty that can often increase with age. Starting over at 60, when energy and health sometimes start to flag, can be daunting.

"With change comes fear," says Davidow, a lawyer who works almost exclusively with retirees. "People don't want to make change in their lives if they can avoid it."

3: Cutting costs

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 start-up costs.

"It's a great deal more expensive to be in some of the communities, in Florida and Arizona, than to stay where they currently are," says Art Koff, author of Invent Your Retirement, and CEO of RetiredBrains.com, a retirement resource. "People are trying to cut back substantially their cost of living. One of the easiest ways to do that is to stay where you are instead of moving."

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 is often seen as a surer way to preserve a retirement nest egg for the long haul. "As the out-of-pocket costs for health care skyrocket, people about to retire look at (staying)," Koff says.

Many retirees who choose to retire in place 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, Ginzler says, because of their higher comfort about debt.

"Boomers have more debt in their homes than their parents did," she says. "We have second mortgages. If you have a lot of equity in your house and you downsize, it turns out to be an economic package for yourself."

But there are those who are just happy to relax once they stop working. Of her coming retirement, Mary Ann Hogan says she's "not going to worry about money."

"We work hard and we save, but you have to take whatever comes," she says. "If we run out of money, I'll just live with my daughters."

Contributing: Kathy Chu

[back to the ARTICLES index page]

CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH DDSS