For Bob and Judy Bartlett, a 4,700-square-foot home on two acres in Durham, N.C., no longer made much sense after their two children had long since moved out. Meanwhile, the retirees were spending more time at a second, [tag]lakefront home[/tag]. So several years ago, they began thinking about selling their primary house and buying something smaller. But it wasn’t easy to make the break; the couple had called the Durham property home for three decades and were unhappy about the prospect of moving away from close friends.

For many older adults, walking away from a home is among the most difficult decisions in later life — even when a move makes economic sense. In a recent survey of retirees, Fidelity Investments’ Fidelity Research Institute found that 43% didn’t want to cash out the equity in their home because they wanted to live where they are “comfortable.” An additional 9% explicitly cited “sentimental” reasons. “There are big emotional barriers to selling…and those barriers appear to grow as you age,” says Guy Patton, who heads the Fidelity group.
The [tag]Fidelity Research Institute[/tag] considered the outcomes from seven different strategies for a hypothetical 75-year-old couple who own a $400,000 home and need to pull out cash. The options included major steps like selling the home and [tag]buying a smaller house[/tag], as well as less-dramatic moves, such as taking out a reverse mortgage. Fidelity calculated that the couple could pull anywhere from $18,000 to $307,000 out of their home over the remainder of their lives depending on the strategy.

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