{"id":55452,"date":"2016-11-30T14:49:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T22:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redfindevelop.wpengine.com\/blog\/?p=55452"},"modified":"2020-10-05T16:22:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T23:22:44","slug":"where-you-can-and-cant-pay-for-senior-living-by-selling-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/where-you-can-and-cant-pay-for-senior-living-by-selling-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Where You Can (and Can\u2019t) Pay for Senior Living by Selling a Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

There comes a time in many\u00a0older Americans\u2019 lives when living independently \u2013 without help from a nurse or caretaker \u2013 is no longer an option. At that point, many choose to sell their homes and move into assisted living communities. For some seniors, the sale of their home will provide enough funds to pay for the extra care, but for others it will only scratch the surface.<\/p>\n

To find out where you can afford the most (and least) amount of years of senior care by selling a home, Redfin teamed up with A Place for Mom, the nation\u2019s largest senior living referral service<\/a>, to compare home prices to the annual cost of various types of senior care, including assisted living, independent living and memory care. Redfin used data from more than 160 cities to see what the median annual cost of senior living looks like and paired that with the average median sale price of a home in\u00a0each city. Then, Redfin calculated the number of years of assisted living and memory care you would be able to afford if you were to sell a home in that city. Included on the list are\u00a0cities where you could afford the most and\u00a0the least number of years of senior living if you financed it with the sale of a home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe costs of senior housing and care don\u2019t vary as much geographically as home prices,\u201d says Ben Hanowell, data scientist at A Place for Mom. \u201cThat benefits seniors in cities with high home prices like San Francisco, but a home sale won\u2019t fund many years of care in a less affluent city like Hartford.\u201d<\/p>\n

The average annual cost of assisted living amounts to a little more than $45,000, and more than $58,000 for specialized memory care for seniors with Alzheimer\u2019s or other forms of dementia. On average, a home sale could pay for nearly five years of assisted living and nearly four years of memory care.<\/p>\n

Half of new assisted living residents are 85 or older and can expect to live another seven years or fewer, Hanowell says, citing life expectancy statistics<\/a> from the Social Security Administration. This means a home sale could fund about half of their stay, barring medical complications that could send them to a more costly skilled nursing facility.<\/p>\n

The two tables below show that\u00a0the sale of your home\u00a0will go further in cities with higher median sale price. For example, selling your home in San Francisco could pay for 22 years of independent living, even with 3 percent annual growth in senior living costs. Selling your home in Hartford, Connecticut, however, will pay for less than a year of independent living.<\/p>\n

10\u00a0Cities Where the Sale of a Home Finances the Most Years of Senior Living<\/h3>\n
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10 Cities Where Sale of a Home Finances the Least\u00a0Years of Senior Living<\/h3>\n
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If you are interested in selling a home to finance senior living for a loved one, contact a Redfin real estate agent<\/a> today. If you are looking for senior living options, talk to a \u00a0Senior Living Advisor <\/a>at A Place for Mom to kick start your research.<\/p>\n

Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n