Why Seniors Buy & Sell
WHY SENIORS MOVE
Push factors
- Cost of maintaining current home (taxes, insurance, assessments, etc.)
- Increased or costly home maintenance issues
- Difficulty with interior homemaking tasks
- Difficulty with exterior home maintenance tasks
- Social isolation – loneliness
- Increased need for personal care or healthcare support
- Declining neighborhood appeal and/or home values
- Feelings of insecurity or fear for personal safety
- Inability to drive or fear of driving due to physical limitations
- Caregiver responsibilities have become unmanageable
- Fear of becoming a burden on adult children or other family members
Pull factors
- Appeal of newer home or improved amenities
- Desire to live near friends and/or family Improved climate
- Less space and or lawn/land to maintain
- Fulfillment of retirement goal (i.e. resort living, destination location, etc.)
- Advanced planning to relieve adult children of future healthcare burden
- Seeking social engagement with others sharing similar interests
Think of push and pull factors as the difference between someone moving away from something unpleasant versus toward something pleasant. It’s less about the issue itself and how they perceive it.
Voluntary relocations
In a voluntary relocation, clients are choosing to move and are ultimately making the decision of their own volition.
Some may feel enthusiastic and positive about an upcoming (or very recent) change in residence, however, others may still hold some ambivalence if the move was for reasons other than an amenity-seeking lifestyle change.
Involuntary relocations
Clients making involuntary moves are doing so as a result of circumstances or conditions they believe to be beyond their control. Despite a desire to remain in their current residence, they have been unable to do so successfully.
A physician, family member, or government agency has dictated they must move or otherwise compelled them to do so.
Sometimes the client may later (as early as a few months or as long as a few years) indicate they moved voluntarily – this is a good sign of successful adaptation to their new residence.