<body><div><p>The economics of homeownership have turned costly for older adults of modest means, especially for those still paying off a mortgage</p><p>Editor’s note: This is part 11 of a 12-part collaborative series between Next Avenue and Marketplace Morning Report.</p><p>Anthony Jones, aged 77, has owned his home in the Twin Cities area for 29 years. The former law enforcement officer and private security guard is physically disabled and relies on professional care attendants and a wheelchair to get around.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0BETCc_12K9wjoM00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0BETCc_12K9wjoM00" width="1876" height="660" ></figure><p>"Like a lot of seniors, we want to stay in our own homes," says Jones. "We're happier here, we can adjust better to life being in our own homes until it gets to the point where we can't really stay. But I feel like I have some more years ahead of me here in my home," he says.</p><p>"It just seems better being here than being in a nursing home, where you're confined and you don't have that freedom to get outside," he adds. "You just feel better. That feeling better makes you healthier."</p><h2>Budgets Stretched Tight</h2><p>Jones's sentiments about growing old in his home (what experts call aging in place) are commonplace. Surveys routinely record that as many as 80% of older owners want to age in their current home. Their reasons are plentiful. Rooms are filled with memories, and the neighborhood is familiar. As novelist Jane Austen wrote in "Emma<i>,</i>" "Ah! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."</p><p><b>"Like a lot of seniors, we want to stay in our own homes."</b></p><p>Yet the economics of homeownership have turned costly for older adults of modest means, especially for those still paying off their mortgage and living on fixed incomes. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies calculates that more than one in four homeowners aged 65 and older are stretched thin financially.</p><p>Even more striking, "97% of older owners with mortgages who are lower income, who have an income under $25,000, are cost burdened, meaning they're paying more than 30% of their income for housing," says Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing an Aging Society program at the Harvard Center.</p><h2>Advocate for Yourself</h2><p>Jones nearly lost his home during the pandemic. He went in for knee replacement surgery early in 2020 and an assessment was made that he would be safer living in a nursing home environment. He strongly disagreed. Thanks to the potent combination of his determination to improve his health and help from Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, another assessment eventually determined he could return home safely. The process took more than a year.</p><p>"A big part of it was his hard work and advocacy to get the kind of personal training and physical therapy he needed so that he could be returned home safely," says Gordon Solo, his Legal Aid lawyer.</p><h2>Help Around the House</h2><p>Jones lives off Social Security and a small pension. He is on Medicare. Key to his finances is qualifying for a state-run program called Alternative Care that allows him to receive the care he needs at home instead of in a nursing home. (Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid helped him maneuver past barriers to joining the program.) Money is scarce, he says, but he is paying his mortgage, utilities, and other household expenses.</p><p>"It is tight and somewhat stressful at times, but the program that I am on, it helps me a great deal," he says. "I have what you call a personal care attendant who comes in and helps me with medical, helps me out with dinner and washing, light housekeeping."</p><p><b>"We are seeing a lot of people carrying mortgage debt into their retirement years, more so than ever before."</b></p><p>He also pays a neighbor to mow his lawn and shovel snow off his sidewalk and wheelchair ramp so he can get to the street where Metro Mobility picks him up and takes him to his doctors.</p><p>The financial strain faced by disabled older homeowners of modest means is widespread. The desire among the older disabled adults to age in place often depends on successfully navigating a complex multitude of government income and health support programs.</p><p>More broadly, making ends meet is hard for increasing numbers of indebted homeowners. The share of homeowners aged 65 to 79 with a mortgage on their primary home, including home equity loans and home equity lines of credit, increased from 24% to 41% between 1989 and 2022, according to Harvard's Housing Studies Center.</p><h2>Harder to Build Equity</h2><p>"When you look at the overall level of mortgage debt, you're not looking at, 'Oh, this is debt people use to purchase a home,' " says Lori Trawinski, senior director, finance and employment at AARP. "It could be debt for many other purposes that they rolled into a mortgage at a later point in time. We are seeing a lot of people carrying mortgage debt into their retirement years, more so than ever before."</p><p>Despite living in their homes for decades, older homeowners with classic 30-year fixed-rate mortgages often haven't built up much equity to tap in their elder years. "It takes a long time to accumulate equity if you get a 30-year loan," says Trawinski. "And if you refinance at some point and also roll into a 30-year loan, you're just perpetuating that debt."</p><p>The costs of homeownership, including property taxes, insurance premiums, and home maintenance expenses, also have risen.</p><h2>More Debts Overall</h2><p>"One of the bigger issues that we see in terms of folks trying to stay in their home is increasing taxes and insurance. That's been huge lately," says Colleen Daly, an attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. "The general cost of owning a home is going up and up and just getting more and more unaffordable for people on fixed incomes."</p><p><b>"The general cost of owning a home is going up and up and just getting more and more unaffordable for people on fixed incomes."</b></p><p>Older adults with mortgages also owe on other loans. An AARP survey found most older people with debt carry several kinds of loans—mortgage, credit card, auto loans, and even student loans. "These debt payments limit the financial flexibility of older homeowners," says Trawinski.</p><p>"The goal of aging in their home is powerful," she adds, "but debt means they are at risk to an unexpectedly large expense — say, the need for long-term care, a drop in income and other potential setbacks."</p><p>For older homeowners living with thin financial margins, there are steps to take that might help relieve money stress. There are federal, state and local government programs and nonprofit organizations that work to keep people in their homes. Lending institutions improved their modification procedures after the housing crisis of 2007 to 2010. Numerous legal organizations are willing to help.</p><h2>Address Debts Now</h2><p>"I would say one thing to do is do something sooner rather than later," says Daly. "A lot of people really get super nervous and stressed out about it. I think that's a natural reaction, but the sooner you can get on top of something like this, it's much better."</p><p>Jeff Corsey, executive director of One Roof Community Housing in Duluth, Minnesota, agrees. The nonprofit organization offers homeowners services like housing counseling, affordable home purchase options and lending for renovations. "You never know until you ask if something is out there for you. You might think there aren't options because the bank can't help you, but we can be pretty creative and, so, no harm," he says.</p><p>Especially if you want to age at home as long as possible.</p><p>Editor’s note: This article is part of our “Debt Free” series, a Next Avenue initiative made possible by a grant from the RRF Foundation for Aging.</p></div></body>

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The economics of homeownership have turned costly for older adults of modest means, especially for those still paying off a mortgage. Editor’s note: This is part 11 of a 12-part collaborative series between Next Avenue and Marketplace Morning Report. Anthony Jones, aged 77, has owned his home in the...

Battling to Age at Home

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The economics of homeownership have turned costly for older adults of modest means, especially for those still paying off a mortgage. Editor’s note: This i

Battling to Age at Home

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