Downsizing home by 86%

[bobble]

We are selling a $500K house to move into a $70K apartment. This will mean no mortgage and more investable assets. We will also save a fortune in running costs every year and have a much easier time staying on top of maintenance.

The living space in the apartment will even be about the same because the cost saving is mostly because we are moving to a more economical yet family-friendly location.

This will mean more time and money for other interests than care and feeding of the house. Feeling badass!

[nouveauRiche]

Awesome!  This move will definitely turbo-charge your net worth.  Rock on!

[Miss Piggy]

Badass. Congrats!

[ontheway2]

Awesome! My first thought was "wow! They must have had a HUGE house" thinking it was a sq footage downsizing. How is the HOA for the apartment, and how does it affect the cost savings?

[bobble]

Can you update us after a few months to share your experience?

Will do!

Awesome! My first thought was "wow! They must have had a HUGE house" thinking it was a sq footage downsizing. How is the HOA for the apartment, and how does it affect the cost savings?

HOA fee is around $400 per month that includes heating, internet, maintenance of the building, and facilities like a laundry room and garbage disposal. That's also much better than the house which cost about the same on heating alone (cold climate.)

[bobble]

Incidentally our living space is around 880 sqft in both places for a family of four (preschoolers.) We're anticipating that we'll need a slightly bigger place in five years or so when the kids need their own rooms.

[KBCB]

This is awesome! Congrats.
I would love to hear how you downsized your belongings and how you and the family feel about it. I am trying so hard to fit into my small-ish house. I have too many belongings and yet I have a hard time getting rid of anything....!!

[MonkeyJenga]

That's an awesome change. How did this affect your fire date?

[Chris Pascale]

Home maintenance is estimated at 1% of value, so your move saves you about $4300 per year. If you will be happy in the smaller space, that's absolutely terrific to also add to your monetary benefits.

As the value of my home approaches (quite unreasonably, IMO) the $500k mark, my wife and I are looking at smaller homes to make a trade-in of house-for-cash. Not sure if we will, but it's worth a look.

[FireHiker]

I hope you are as happy with your downsizing as we have been with ours! We downsized by 66% in August. We're still working our way through all the extra STUFF we still have, but it's awfully nice to have less maintenance and much lower expenses.

[FamilyGuy]

Great decision

[MasterStache]

Downsizing is a great decision. We downsized almost 5 years ago. Our last house wasn't big though by any means. But it did have a large in ground pool and tons of landscaping. Allowed me to retire much sooner.

[ULminimalist]

Incidentally our living space is around 880 sqft in both places for a family of four (preschoolers.) We're anticipating that we'll need a slightly bigger place in five years or so when the kids need their own rooms.

Kids don't need their own rooms. I was raised in a family of 8 in a 1150sq house, 4 sisters in one bedroom, me and my brother in the other, parents in the master. Worked out fine, but I'm super minimalist. Even with that size, I could fit 4 people or even 6 in one normal house sized bedroom, 2 or 3 bunk beds will fit pretty well in a bedroom, though 2 would be optimal, with a couple dressers, or even one, depending on how minimalist people are.

Remember, the biggest reason people get a bigger place is to store more stuff. My survival instructor spent 5 months living with his wife and two 6 and 10 year old girls in a 300sq yurt, cooking and everything in there.

[sentry]

Downsizing was one of the best financial moves we've ever made. Young kids don't know the difference and like to be outside most of the time anyways!

[OtherJen]

Incidentally our living space is around 880 sqft in both places for a family of four (preschoolers.) We're anticipating that we'll need a slightly bigger place in five years or so when the kids need their own rooms.

Kids don't need their own rooms. I was raised in a family of 8 in a 1150sq house, 4 sisters in one bedroom, me and my brother in the other, parents in the master. Worked out fine, but I'm super minimalist. Even with that size, I could fit 4 people or even 6 in one normal house sized bedroom, 2 or 3 bunk beds will fit pretty well in a bedroom, though 2 would be optimal, with a couple dressers, or even one, depending on how minimalist people are.

Remember, the biggest reason people get a bigger place is to store more stuff. My survival instructor spent 5 months living with his wife and two 6 and 10 year old girls in a 300sq yurt, cooking and everything in there.

If the kids are of opposite sexes, then eventually they will need their own rooms. My young niece and nephew currently share a room, but that will probably only be feasible for a few more years.

[Much Fishing to Do]

Incidentally our living space is around 880 sqft in both places for a family of four (preschoolers.) We're anticipating that we'll need a slightly bigger place in five years or so when the kids need their own rooms.

Yikes, congrats for dumping a $500k house with 880sqft of living space....that is some HCOL.  That seems like a high HOA to me but if its including electric, internet, trash etc I guess its really not. Nice job

[ULminimalist]

Incidentally our living space is around 880 sqft in both places for a family of four (preschoolers.) We're anticipating that we'll need a slightly bigger place in five years or so when the kids need their own rooms.

Kids don't need their own rooms. I was raised in a family of 8 in a 1150sq house, 4 sisters in one bedroom, me and my brother in the other, parents in the master. Worked out fine, but I'm super minimalist. Even with that size, I could fit 4 people or even 6 in one normal house sized bedroom, 2 or 3 bunk beds will fit pretty well in a bedroom, though 2 would be optimal, with a couple dressers, or even one, depending on how minimalist people are.

Remember, the biggest reason people get a bigger place is to store more stuff. My survival instructor spent 5 months living with his wife and two 6 and 10 year old girls in a 300sq yurt, cooking and everything in there.

If the kids are of opposite sexes, then eventually they will need their own rooms. My young niece and nephew currently share a room, but that will probably only be feasible for a few more years.

True to an extent. We did have separate rooms, but you can put as many people as you like in one room. Hanging blankets from the ceiling to separate it into several bedrooms works as well, or you can frame in a wall, it's a super simple construction job.

[bobble]

Yikes, congrats for dumping a $500k house with 880sqft of living space....that is some HCOL.

The old house actually had more space than that, but we didn't use it on a day-to-day basis, only when guests came to stay.

One major difference in the apartment now, having lived there for a while, is that it can create problems with the downstairs neighbour when you have kids who are used to running and jumping in a house suddenly moving in upstairs in an old building...