Do downsizers ever downsize?

[NewbieOnHolidays]

We’ve seen so many detached family houses with husband and wife in their 50-60s (kids grew up and left), so now just 2 people living on 200+ sq.m. They all say they want to downsize, put house on the market at an astronomical price and fail to get offers anywhere close to asking and then just take it off the market. So once again a house came up, after 3 weeks they managed to get about 10 people who wanted to view, did an open day, we put an offer below asking, were now told there were 5 offers with 3 above asking, so they rejected our offer. We’ve been in this boat so many times and it always end up same way: we compete against non existent buyers who are very keen, offer way above asking, then we see the house keeps staying on the market or just disappears without sstc. Same street couple of months ago after 3 rounds of best an final competing against “many interested couples” and upping our offer every time we just got fed up and walked away, in few weeks sellers took it off the market. Do downsizers ever downsize?

We talked about downsizing from our 5 bed 3 bath family home but them DS boomeranged back and is working locally (was never part of his (wanted to be in a city) or our plans. However he will need to save a lot and get promoted before he can even think about buying a house and it's pointless him wasting money on rent when he can live here.
Having watched the market around here I don't even know where we'd go if we did sell. Someone we know locally has just sold to downsize and wanted to stay in the area. Sold much quicker than they thought, agreed to go into rented and have had to move 30 miles away just to get a rental property never mind something to buy.
Plus we've been here 30 years and have accumulated lots of stuff which we'd have to get rid of to downsize - neither of us are good at chucking stuff out! So I guess we'll be here for a lot longer than planned.

This!

I think the market is crazy at the moment. There is a lot of focus in OP’s post on one specific demographic.

but I bough and sold last year and first time buyers bring their own challenges, as do families.

OP buying a house is a drearily process. People are free to ask whatever they want for a house and are free to turn down your offers. I appreciate it’s a very emotional process, but you will have to develop thicker skin.

hopefully you will get the house you want. It does seem odd that every house you bid on is owned by a downsized with unrealistic expectations. That is an run of bad luck and quite a coincidence

Stop worrying about what the sellers are doing with their own money!

Decide how much you can afford to pay & offer that 🤷🏻‍♀️

We bought from downsizers. They bought for £110,000 in 1985 and sold to us for £1,100,000 in 2015, so seemed pretty happy.

I'm planning on downsizing the weeks after my youngest moves out. The thought of being able to clean a 2up/2down in an hour every Saturday morning is enough of a motivator.

Luckily we don't currently have a drive or a garden, so nothing to motivate us to stay.

Stamp duty to size up is far more than to downsize. We will have to pay almost 200k for the next move up the ladder!

If you’re downsizing, you’ve already - probably - made masses of capital gain. I think downsizing will become even less common in future though as couples start families later. DH is 51 and we have two primary aged DC so are looking to upsize.

I did earlier this year so yes. But I do think some struggle to find anywhere to buy

I downsized from a 4 bedroom house to a 3 bedroomed flat. It is a large flat on 2 floors with a lovely garden and I wanted a large reception room so I could do Xmas for 15. It's great. Cheaper to run and closer to excellent transport.

I’ve known some to because they move near kids and they just take the hit.

often they don’t (and some until it’s too late, unfortunately for them) because there isn’t a ‘house down’ that works. Downsizing is a big thing and they’re very picky. Often a house half the size is in a less nice location and still 3/4 the price of their current house. And there’s the ongoing denial about ageing which feels better.

I hope you find somewhere.

So it depends on your area and what’s available there

Another issue

Not all 60 year olds bought their current house in the 1980s, certainly in my area the population has been quite mobile.
Stamp duty is a big issue. DH & I have been looking around to determine whether we want to move from our detached house or adapt it to see us through until we go into a home or otherwise . We are late 50s.
We are in Scotland and the rate for LBTT is 10% for houses in the £325k- £750k bracket. Realistically we would be spending around £450k . The £45k would go a long way towards our future proofing.

Sorry OP but you either need to offer what they are asking or wait.

Some people want to downsize but don't have to downsize.

If they have the money to stay put and they can still manage the stairs and the garden, they will always find fault with a smaller place - living room too small, area not good, still want detached etc.

So then it's either a health event or the compensation of getting a really top price that they rely on as the push factor.

I know quite a few who have downsized to a large, detached family home from a large, detached family home. It's nuts really but they can afford it.

I am N/C with my Mum now but one of the things which made me see the light was her insistence at staying in a five bed detached house. I finally saw she wasn't going to help herself and would expect her adult children to provide all her care, despite having 1.5m in savings.

I have a disabled child and am a FT carer so just dh wage. We are moving to a flat next week because it's what we can afford.

Seems to me you are looking for someone or something to blame for your situation.

Quite simply, you are not offering the price the sellers need / want. If you want their house, you need to pay what they want or walk away.

(Two couples in my street have downsized recently but I don't think that is relevant to why you can't buy a house).

I think stamp duty is the main issue. My fb always talked about down sizing. Now he doesn’t want to waste his kids inheritance on stamp duty when he doesn’t need to.

l feel the same.

Db not fb!

We are trying to downsize .. we are SSTC have viewed 22 properties out offers in on four and still haven't 'won' properties often losing out to cash and/or chain free buyers with much lower offers than ours. Frustrated as hell. So if we don't find somewhere soon either our chain will collapse or we will have to shelve plans to move for now despite best efforts to find ... maybe these couples are like us and can't find anywhere so take their houses off the market ... Moving right now feels like pushing a huge boulder up a hill

When my father died, my mother said she would wait a year, and then look to buy a smaller house. Hers is our childhood home. Large 4 bed detached, big garden. . She had all the handrails dad needed removed and had the house repainted and lots of tweaks done ready to sell.. Over the 3 years after my father died she looked at smaller houses locally ( we all live close by so she wants to stay here) but all the bungalows needed new kitchens and bathrooms and the starter home type size were so tiny and had only one parking space and she was worried about that causing issues with visitors to her and neighbours having multiple cars . Over the time after dad's death she made her house her own. It is very modern and open plan. The garden has been sorted so lots of fabulous stuff goes up the walls and the rest is grass. She has a gardener to mow it and cut hedges etc. She has a cleaner every week who does a brilliant job. She has room for family get together and to have guests to stay. She didn't want to end up in a teeny tiny old people's house. Just because you are 83 doesn't mean you shuffle about waiting for death in a tiny house with a hideous dark oak kitchen . She will only leave thst house if she dies or goes into a care home. It has to make sense for someone to move. The cost, the hassle of living in a smaller house whilst the dated stuff is dealt with, the lack of space if you are used to having spacious rooms. If you want a bigger house Op you have to make it worth the sellers while. They have the advantage. If they don't want to move they don't have to.

We would like to downsize in five years or so but stamp duty a real issue. Would be £200kin our area to buy something we would like. Our current house is lovely and we have been very lucky as the area has become extremely desirable. We have also done a lot of work. Yes we would have a lot of cash spare but there’s more to it than that.

We talk about downsizing but realistically we won’t. Current home has large rooms and smaller homes are like tiny boxes and wouldn’t fit our sofas for instance. All our bedrooms are en suite but smaller homes often have one bathroom and a cloakroom. We may not need all the space we have but we have got used to it and would find it hard to manage with less. You may just need to pay the asking price if you’re determined to move.

We did. From a large house in the country to a smaller townhouse with courtyard garden. We wanted to be away for long periods of time without having to worry about a garden and security. It does take some doing to find the right house. We wanted somewhere more manageable but still with largish rooms. I thought I was ruthless when downsizing our stuff but after 8 years I'm still doing it 🤨

It is a problem in our country that people choose to stay in houses once their kids have left home etc. But, its life and there are lots of reasons why people choose to stay in houses bigger than they need.

Adult children tend to boomerang back home
Space for grandchildren
Common one, they plan to downsize but leave it too late and are too elderly to go through the hassle of moving.

Me and my husband plan to downsize in the future, but will that actually happen? who knows.

We downsized from a 5 bed with office, two living rooms, three bathrooms, huge kitchen diner. We now have a large two bed with two bathrooms, office, kitchen/diner/snug and separate living room, big hallway, big driveway double garage but smaller garden. We looked for ages to find something that wasn't too small. We didn't want a starter home! Our buyers were a family in their late 30's with school age dc similar to when we bought it.
We did it so we could retire early, it's much cheaper on bills, maintenance and we were able to buy a rental property mortgage free from the equity. Also don't want to end up like dps. My dp late 80's still live in a house that is remote and far too big, they are struggling with it, had several opportunities to move but too stubborn.

DH and I are mid 60s, our 2 sons flew the nest ages ago. We thought about downsizing. It is fine in theory but we nee our double garage for all our stuff. I like our garden and don't want a very small one. We have turned our dining room into a yoga and meditation room and I have one bedroom as a sewing room.
One the face of it a modest 3 bedroom house or even a flat would be enough, but it won't provide everything we like about our present house. We have looked at quite a few new properties but the rooms are tiny and there is very little storage space. You are lucky to get a single garage with them. I read a little while ago that some builders were thinking of specialising in houses to suit people like us with better sized but fewer rooms. I have not seen anything like that in this area.

This is exactly where I’m at, I want a smaller house, but I still want a lovely garden, I don’t want smaller rooms just fewer of them, I would like to release some equity but anything that is cheaper, is not in an area I would like to live in. Any house that ticks the boxes in an area I want to be in is at least another £100k on top of our existing, lovely family home in an area near good schools.

So I fully admit 2 of us in this home must be frustrating for families like you, but I can’t afford where I want to be and I will not downsize for the sake of it and live in an area where I don’t want to be.