![]() ![]() However, half of homeowners over 55 are currently carrying mortgages, compared with a third in the late 1980s, according to the Center for Retirement Research, which sponsors this blog. Older homeowners can also get relief if they finally pay off their mortgage. The issue for renters in urban areas is that rents in recent years have increased two times faster than the cost-of-living increases in their Social Security checks, consuming more and more of their disposable income over many years of retirement, Molinsky said. But the financial pressures on both groups intensify as they get into their 80s – albeit for different reasons. The burden of housing costs is greatest for renters, who tend to have lower incomes than homeowners. Shared living arrangements with non-relatives are also more common. ![]() Today, 11 percent of people over 65 are living with parents, offspring, siblings or other relatives. One indication of retiree’s resilience, however, is that they are increasingly getting financial relief by moving in with family or friends. So even if their living situations don’t change, they may have difficulty paying for their house or apartment once they run through their scant savings or after years of inflation seriously erode the value of their pensions. Many retirees struggle financially, because they haven’t saved enough during their working years to supplement their Social Security checks. In the Boston suburb where she lives, for example, a modern condo building conveniently located near public transportation is often more expensive than the house the person wants to sell. The issue, Molinsky said, is that when baby boomers begin to develop physical limitations, there won’t be enough housing to allow them to remain independent, whether in a one-story ranch house, a condominium building with an elevator, or an assisted living facility that manages their routine housekeeping chores. “Unless we create more options for people at the middle- and lower-income levels, we are going to be seeing that people have fewer choices and that they’re forced into options they don’t want,” she said. The number of households over 80 will more than double over the next 20 years, the housing center estimates. ![]() If the senior housing problem hasn’t reached crisis proportions yet, Jennifer Molinsky, who wrote the center’s report, predicted that it will if nothing is done to increase the supply of housing structures that are both affordable and age-friendly to meet the needs of aging baby boomers. Housing experts typically recommend that people keep their housing costs below a third of their income. But one in three Americans over age 65 are spending more than that on their rent or mortgage payment, utilities, property insurance, maintenance, and other housing costs, according to a new study, “Housing America’s Older Adults,” by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. If (slot) slot.addService(googletag.Nearly 10 million seniors are having difficulty paying for housing – and the problem is growing. (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) A vanished Jewish community: Remembering the Jews of Tianjin - The Jerusalem Post ![]()
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