SRES Consumer Newsletter - October 2020

 

Consumer Newsletter – October 2020 US Edition; By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau	www.sres.org

Best Cities for Retirement

The COVID-19 crisis has many carefully considering the when, where, and how of retirement.

In its “2020’s Best & Worst Places to Retire,” WalletHub analyzed more than 180 U.S. cities and ranked their retirement friendliness.

The variables it examined included safety, access to healthcare, affordability, tax friendliness, and quality of life.

The report can help you start thinking through decisions about finances, your next city, and what’s important to you in retirement.

Here are WalletHub’s top five retirement cities:

1.     Orlando, Fla.

2.     Tampa, Fla.

3.     Charleston, S.C.

4.     Miami, Fla.

5.     Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Other spots in the top ten included Casper, Wyo., Minneapolis, Minn., and Jackson, Miss. See the complete list here: https://bit.ly/3moEMeO 

Beyond the rankings, there’s additional value in the insight provided by experts that WalletHub interviewed.

They all answered a set of questions on topics like financial considerations, mistakes people make when planning for retirement, and the effect the pandemic has had on people’s plans.

Joseph F. Coughlin, Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pointed out that retirement is a long time — about one-third of your adult life or 8,000 days.

“Therefore, where you live should have all the elements you would want to live well, not just walking the beach, golf course, or even the occasional bike ride. Think about access to healthcare, friends, the likelihood of making new friends, activities that stimulate — not just entertain,” commented Coughlin.

He also warned against being wooed by trite brochures and ads showing retirement as an endless vacation, saying, “…it is crucial to living in a place that pushes and pulls you into participating in activities and social interactions that excite and delight. Retirement means stepping away from the routine of work that lasted 30-40 years, it is not about stepping out of life.”

Another interviewee, Cal J. Halvorsen, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Boston College, emphasized the importance of building social connections and finding a sense of purpose.

He spoke about the loss of a sense of self that people face during retirement and the importance of making it a priority to find new purpose through volunteering, philanthropic work, part-time jobs, and hobbies.

If you’re still uncertain about the states to consider for retirement, look at a January 2020 WalletHub presentation (https://bit.ly/3hwFwuv), “Best & Worst States to Retire.” It measured states on things like affordability, quality of life, and healthcare.

Here are WalletHub’s top 10 states:

1.     Florida

2.     Colorado

3.     New Hampshire

4.     Utah

5.     Wyoming

6.     Delaware

7.     Virginia

8.     Wisconsin

9.     Idaho

10.  Iowa

Medicare Open Enrollment — October 15-December 7

Medicare Open Enrollment for 2021 starts on October 15 and ends on December 7, 2020. 

It’s your chance to sign up for coverage for the first time or, for those already enrolled, to review coverage and make changes.

It’s best to get an early start and not wait until the last minute to review your options. Particularly for first-timers, the system is complex and it can be challenging to figure out what policies fit your needs.

Resources:

 

·        “Different types of Medicare health plans” (https://bit.ly/3iuv1sR) to understand what a Medicare health plan is.

·        For complete Medicare information, including costs, what it covers, and to sign up, see: https://bit.ly/2Fyo2AD.

·        AARP (https://bit.ly/3ivillH) explains the ins and outs of Medicare, mistakes to avoid, and how to figure out what all the letters — Plans A, B, C, and D — actually mean. 

	Real Estate Matters: News & Issues for the Mature Market Palmer House Properties 10 Strecker Road, Suite 1650  Ellisville, MO 63011 Matt Wroughton - SRES, PSA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SRES Consumer Newsletter - August 2020

 

Consumer Newsletter – August 2020 US Edition; By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau	www.sres.org

Protocols for Nursing Home Visits

For anyone with parents or loved ones living in a long-term care facility, the months of separation because of Covid-19 lockdowns has made the stay-at-home orders doubly painful.

You not only miss your loved ones but also worry about their physical and mental well-being and the toll so many months of isolation has taken.

And though you want to visit – some states are now allowing in-person get-togethers –it’s natural to be concerned about your health and that of long-term care residents.

As such facilities begin to open for in-person visits again, it’s important  to understand the facility’s  protocols and how you and your loved one will be kept safe.

AARP offers some key questions everyone should ask before planning a visit, including:

·        What is the nursing home doing to help make it safe for visitors to come back?

·        What protection and social-distancing measures are in place

·        Are you doing everything possible to minimize risks to residents?

·        Will visits be restricted by time and place?

·        What kind of health checks will be required for visitors?

To check whether your state has resumed in-person visits to nursing homes, see https://bit.ly/30JAlkL. In some, including Arizona, Florida, and Texas, visits are forbidden, unless there are unique circumstances like end-of-life situations.

Ohio nursing homes are opening up for outdoor visits, and facilities in other states are reopening with specific restrictions in place. Those include things like outdoor visits, scheduled visits during specific hours, and limits on how many people can see a given resident at a time.

Markets Recovering, Says NAR Survey

Especially if you were poised to sell your home before the pandemic, one gnawing question likely has been what impact Covid-19 would have on the real estate market.

The National Association of REALTORS^® took a look at this issue by polling members in late June.

Its 2020 Market Recovery Survey shows that markets are recovering, with 45% of respondents saying that their market is slowly entering recovery and 28% saying their marketing is hotter than normal.

And if you’re selling a home, the good news is that buyers are returning. In fact, 9% of respondents to the NAR survey said that all of their buyers have returned and 18% said that their buyers never left.

In rural areas and small towns, 33% said their market is hotter than normal, though 40% said the market is slowly entering recovery.

In urban areas, 49% said the market is slowly entering recovery, 17%  reported that it’s back to normal and 23% reported that their market is hotter than normal.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening.

	Small town/Rural	Urban area	Suburban area
No buyers paused, continued to work with buyers	23%	17%	17%
No buyers have returned	5%	11%	9%
Less than 25%	19%	21%	20%
25%-50%	22%	25%	21%
51%-99%	21%	17%	24%
100% of buyers returned	9%	9%	10%

 

The survey also includes information about buyers’ timelines, home features important in a new home, and the importance of technology.

For example, if you’re buying or selling in the next year, expect to see real estate practitioners rely on technology more. Sixty-seven percent of respondents expect the demand for Zoom and other video technologies for client communications to increase. Increased demand for other technologies also is expected to rise, and those include virtual tours (66%), live virtual tours (63% conducted by an aging using video), and virtual open houses (60%).

See more results from the survey on the SRES blog, and read the complete survey at (https://bit.ly/32ICQGB).

 

	Real Estate Matters: News & Issues for the Mature Market Coldwell Banker Premier Group 2203 S Big Bend Blvd St. Louis, MO 63117 Matt Wroughton - PSA, SRES