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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tom Kelly: Viewing your second home as a potential retirement residence

According to the National Association of Realtors, about one-fifth of all second-home owners see the home as a potential retirement residence.

If you are considering buying a vacation home that could turn into a retirement option, there are three main considerations you should put on your list as you assess your options.

What is the quality of medical and social services in the area? As you age, you will come to rely more and more on the helping professions and your own mobility will diminish. Being close to good community hospitals, elder centers and recreational opportunities suitable to age becomes more important as time goes by.

Will the home age with you? Steps become a barrier as you get older, regular door openings are too narrow and regular counter tops too high for wheelchairs, and regular wall studs are often too weak to hold grab bars. Before you decide on a house, inspect its construction carefully, not just for now but also for 20 or 30 years from now. We live longer these days, and you’re likely to spend more time in that house than you think.

Can your friends and relatives or medical professionals reach you easily? The visits may be friendly and enjoyable or they may be necessitated by a crisis, but they will come. Whether you want them to, such as a break from the routine of the retirement community, or whether they have to, your friends and relatives will come more frequently if you live near a major airport or train or bus station. When you select the home, evaluate it for convenience of access.

Choosing a vacation property that eventually can become your retirement home is both easier than it has ever been and also more difficult. The difficulty arises because of the increased demand for these properties. There are a variety of reasons, chief among them is the baby boom demographic that is now moving through a period of life when additional real estate makes sense for both portfolio reasons and for family reasons. At the same time, the supply of investment and vacation properties has failed to keep up with demand because of a dramatic increase in home ownership and restrictions on land use that have hampered the creation of new housing. So the market remains very tight.

But buying real estate is also much easier than it has ever been because of the abundance of information available to the prospective buyer. The internet is a marvelous tool for researching the housing market and for finding out about a community. Local newspapers now have detailed sites that allow you to find out about community organizations, leisure activities and safety factors.

From the comfort of your home, you can find out how it is to live somewhere else. You can also find and evaluate potential vacant lots before you hop in the car and begin your physical inspections.

Remember, there is no substitute for actually visiting communities that interest you. That’s the only way to gauge accurately the suitability of a house or a community for your purposes. Before you go, though, visit all the relevant websites. It will give you a leg up on your decision and will make you feel more comfortable with an area when you actually go there.

And, if you plan to spend the rest of your days there, it makes sense to spend a few extra days checking it out.