Why Shrinking Your Home Can Make Sense

While most of us are dreaming of extending our family house somehow - more bedrooms or an extra bathroom, usually - there are also a lot of advantages to be had from shrinking your home: that is, selling a larger house and buying something smaller.

The most obvious and immediate advantage is that you will have access to more money. Your mortgage will be smaller (if you’re not lucky enough to have no mortgage), and all of the expenses that go with a house including taxes, insurance, heating and so on will also be significantly lower.

“Home shrinking” is obviously most appropriate for couples who have grown children and no longer need such a large house. While many of these couples tend to stay living in the family home, thinking they need the spare rooms for when family come to stay or just because they’re used to having so much space, they’re doing themselves a financial disservice by staying. There are many ways to justify it, but for example, the thousands of dollars (or more) saved by downsizing would allow them to offer a few nights in a hotel to visiting family members who find the new house too small.

A final important point is that society’s care for the elderly is changing rapidly, and there are now plenty of ways to get care at home when necessary - meaning lots of people can stay in their home and avoid nursing homes. In that case, it’s also much easier to be in a smaller house which requires less care.