How Many Years of Senior Living Could your Prospective Resident’s Home Sale Fund?
One of the top things APFM Advisors discuss with families is how to finance senior living, and selling a home as a potential means of paying for senior living is something many families are interested in. Data Journalist, Ben Hanowell teamed up with real estate professionals at Redfin and took a look at just how many years of senior living a potential resident could fund on average with a home sale, based on what city that home is in.
Did your city make the top of the list? Home prices vary more dramatically based on geography than senior living prices, making some cities more attractive than others when comparing years of senior living paid for by a home sale. On average across all cities in the US, we find that a home sale when owned outright could pay for almost 5 years of senior living.
How far a prospect’s home sale could go in paying for senior living
Combining Redfin data on median home sale prices with median senior living cost estimates from our Senior Living Cost Index, we calculated the number of years of senior living a home sale is worth in 162 cities, and for each of the major care types.
You learn more about the senior living value of median home sale prices by putting it on a map. Below you see cities colored more red for higher home prices. Larger circles mean a home sale will pay for more years of senior living. The circles are more red and larger in affluent coastal cities, especially cities in coastal California.
Tap a circle to see median home prices and the years of care they could fund in that city.
The graphics above assume a prospective resident owns their home outright, but 35% of adults over 65 still owe on their home loan, so obviously they would be able to pay for less if they only had 50% equity.  Below we show the number of senior living years a home sale could purchase under three equity scenarios in each city, averaged across care types.
Our hope is that this information is helpful as we work together to help families find and finance senior living.