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How They Found Their Forever Home

From the Big City to Green Acres, learn how these older home buyers chased their dreams for a better life


spinner image Steve and Jane Rogers standing outside building
To help them ease into retirement, Steve and Jane Rogers moved to the quaint village of Hobart, New York. They're not alone: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 6 million Americans over 55 move each year.
Peter Ross

Changing residences at a later stage in life is all about embracing a new rhythm. Perhaps your empty nest feels a bit too roomy and the time has come to downsize to an urban condo. Or after years of battling rush hour traffic every day, you’re craving someplace that’s greener and more walkable, where the pace is more humane. If something’s calling you to move, it’s not too late to relocate. More than 6 million Americans age 55 and up take the leap and find a new address each year, with women leading the way, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Here’s a look at a few of them.

 

spinner image Dave and Jill Dalton standing outside in front of trees and building, staring at eachother
Dave and Jill Dalton moved to the tiny town of Abingdon, Virginia, from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Will Crooks

Seeking culture and active lifestyle on a smaller scale

Dave Dalton, 65, and Jill Dalton, 64, went from booming Charlotte, North Carolina, to the tiny town of Abingdon, Virginia.

Why relocate? The Daltons love Charlotte (metro area around 3 million), but when Dave retired as a manufacturing executive in 2021, he craved a more active, outdoor lifestyle. He and Jill both wanted a walkable small town with vibrant culture — an arts scene, great food and a more youthful population. They went all in on Abingdon, with a historic main street, access to trout fishing and biking, more than 30 restaurants and the Barter Theatre, the nation’s longest-running professional theater. And with the town’s median age of 45, retirees are able to mix with younger residents. “Can you say dream town?” asks Jill.

Dollars and sense: The Daltons bought a three-floor historic house from 1803 and are making the renovation a retirement project. Adding HVAC and bumping up those low Jefferson-era ceilings isn’t cheap, but costs in general “are a fraction of what they are in Charlotte,” Dave says. One cost increase they didn’t expect: clothing. “We only have two seasons in Charlotte, but Abingdon has four, so you need four wardrobes,” Dave says.

New abode, new horizons: “Life is more relaxed, and there’s a warmth from people you don’t always get in an urban setting,” Jill says. “Once you meet someone here, you look out for each other.” According to Dave, there aren’t enough days in the week for all the activities Abingdon offers. He already serves on an Abingdon board and a tourism advisory council, and there’s hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, an annual fiddler’s convention, pickleball and tons of golf. “I thought people were supposed to slow down in retirement,” he says, “but it’s not looking that way.” 

What they miss: “Our friends in Charlotte,” Dave says. “But the neat thing is they can get here to visit us in under three hours.”

Grooviest part of the move: “I thought we had great theater in Charlotte,” Dave says. “But we saw Les Mis in Barter, and I have to say, Abingdon might have done it better.”

 

spinner image Nancy Hess handing money to man over a cheese counter
Nancy Hess enjoys many more amenities in the Kansas City area than she had in her small town about 100 miles away.
Arin Yoon

Finding energy in a downsize to a big city

Nancy Hess, 70, went from rural Burlington, Kansas, to cosmopolitan Kansas City, Kansas.

Why relocate? “Don’t laugh,” says Nancy, who had lived in small Kansas towns all her life, “but my gut was telling me that if I stayed in Burlington, I would turn into one of those little old ladies who never leaves the house.” She admits she felt she’d been “coasting” ever since Sam, her partner of 22 years, passed away 13 years ago. So after retiring as a computer program analyst at a nuclear plant in 2020, “I felt like stepping out of my comfort zone and pushing myself a little.”

Dollars and sense: City life is more expensive. Nancy’s senior living community in Kansas City required entrance and service fees, and K.C. prices are higher for things like dinners out and entertainment, but “that’s why I worked a desk job for 34 years,” she says. With plenty of activities at her complex — there’s a fitness center, for example — the convenience and camaraderie balance out the costs.

New abode, new horizons: “It feels like a fresh start to me,” says Nancy, who loves being within 30 minutes of countless activities and events. Having people from her community to do things with is icing on the cake. She attends Kansas City Monarchs baseball games, summertime jazz band concerts and dinner theater events, as well as visiting local historical societies, libraries and quilt shops. “At first I was a little bit hesitant going around town, but now I’m happy even if I’m getting lost and finding my way back home.”

 

spinner image Barry Wendell and Joseph Hample standing outside in front of home
Barry Wendell and Joseph Hample found a home in Morgantown, West Virginia, that was much more affordable than almost anything they could get in California.
Joe Appel

Greater meaning at a much slower pace

Rabbi Joe Hample, 68, and Barry Wendell, 75, went from busy Los Angeles to the somewhat sleepy Morgantown, West Virginia.

Why relocate? Joe and Barry met and married at a gay synagogue in Los Angeles, where Joe was studying to be a rabbi after a career as a systems analyst and Barry worked as a cantorial soloist and teacher. They wanted out. “I had lived in Los Angeles for 25 years already and was, like, I’m ready for something new,” Barry says. After Joe landed a rabbi gig deep in Appalachia, the move was on.

Dollars and sense: “Morgantown is dirt cheap by California standards,” Joe says. “We never could’ve afforded a house in L.A. or any hot California real estate market.”

 

spinner image Jennifer and Lynn O'Connell sitting at table, eating ice cream
Jennifer and Lynn O'Connell swapped suburban Orange County, California, for small-town Muscle Shoals, Alabama. A welcoming church and an affordable way of life were the main draws.
Robert Rausch

Finding a place of faith and affordability

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, 58, and Lynn O’Connell, 63, went from suburban Orange County, California, to the small Deep South town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Why relocate? “California prices are insane!” says Jennifer, a yoga teacher and freelance journalist. Lynn, a service engineer for tech businesses, was commuting 57 miles each way. Neither liked “the stranglehold of constantly working only to feel like we were just scraping by,” as Jennifer puts it. The O’Connells wanted a place that aligned with their Christian values. “Muscle Shoals instantly hit our hearts,” Jennifer says. She sent an email last winter to a pastor there whose sermons she appreciated. “He got back to me within an hour. Then a campus coordinator connected me with a Realtor who helped us find a home. I was, like, we’re doing this!” Last June, the O’Connells moved.

Dollars and sense: Money goes much further in Muscle Shoals. “We have a great three-bedroom, two-bath house that’s roughly half the rent we were paying for much less space in California,” says Lynn, who landed a service route with a regional communications and IT company.

New abode, new horizons: Having a built-in spiritual community provided a soft landing. “An entire crew from church showed up at our house to move us in and make us feel cared for,” Jennifer says.

 

Following family, jobs and heart

Steve Rodgers, 59, and Jane Rodgers, 60, went from a tony D.C. suburb to the hustle-bustle Big Apple to the quaint village of Hobart, New York.

Why relocate? In 2019, after their son, Sam, experienced a significant health crisis, the Rodgerses left the leafy D.C. exurb of Leesburg, Virginia, their home for 20 years, to be near Sam in New York City. With his health stabilized in 2023, Jane and Steve headed way upstate, to Hobart, New York (population 397), for ample space and a quieter, more affordable ease into retirement.

Dollars and sense: Even with downsizing, moving from a single-family home into a two-bedroom Manhattan apartment wasn’t cheap. “Rent, groceries, restaurants, taxes — literally everything costs more in New York City,” says Jane, a nonprofit executive who, like Steve, can work remotely. It helped to have additional income from renting the Virginia place, but Steve, who designs security systems, wanted to reinvest the cash after selling that home in 2020. “Property within a two-hour drive of New York City was out of our reach, so we pushed to three hours, and, yep, that did it,” he says.

New abode, new horizons: The Rodgerses found a beautiful old four-bedroom house on an acre and a half, with a converted barn/guesthouse “that is part of our retirement plan,” says Jane, whose goal is to work two more years. Steve intends to work until age 65. “We’ll use the guesthouse as an Airbnb beginning next year, and hopefully that income will keep us going,” Jane says. And “we have enough space to host Sam and his friends anytime he wants to come up,” she adds.

 

spinner image Doreen Hall Vann and son sitting at table in kitchen eating Spam Musubī
Doreen Hall Vann digs into some Spam Musubī with her son Zaiden. The family moved from O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, to Las Vegas, which has much lower housing costs.
Roger Kisby

Priced out of paradise, Sin City beckoned

Doreen Hall Vann, 51, and Marquise Vann, 46, went from tropical Pearl City in central O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, to go-go greater Las Vegas.

Why relocate? A Native Hawaiian, Doreen assumed she’d live out her days on O‘ahu. But after a daughter moved to the mainland for a nursing job, Doreen decided in 2019 to follow with her husband, Marquise, and son, Zaiden, now 10. “In a more affordable setting, we could work to live rather than living to work,” she says.

Dollars and sense: Hawai‘i has the highest cost of living in the U.S. Doreen couldn’t believe the savings: The four-bedroom, three-bath house she and Marquise, an Air Force reservist and truck driver, bought for $300,000, “would have cost twice that back on O‘ahu.”

New abode, new horizons: Doreen feared that homesickness would overwhelm her, but Las Vegas has Hawaiian barbecue restaurants, hula shops, famous Hawaiian entertainers. “It’s easy to live aloha here,” she says.

 

Reining in for an easier, fuller life

Rich Murrison, 73, and Teri Murrison, 67, went from a seven-acre Idaho farm with horses to a downsized home in Boise.

Why relocate? Magical as it was, “farm life was just too costly and challenging” to maintain as the Murrisons got older, so “we made the hardest choice we ever faced,” says Teri, a travel writer. “During the wintertime especially, we were hiring people to come in and clean up horse poop and do other things we no longer wanted to do.”

Fortunately, their daughter is a real estate agent in Boise. “She was only too happy to take us out for a hypothetical look-see and show us what was on the market,” Teri says. ​The Murrisons sold the farm and moved to Idaho’s capital city in January 2022.

Dollars and sense: “When you factor in the cost of keeping animals and how much we paid to irrigate and for power and gas, we’re saving a significant amount,” says Rich, a retired educator. For example, gas bills in their new 2,500-square-foot, three-bedroom Boise house are $125 a month in the winter, compared with about $340 on the farm.​

The Murrisons re-homed their three horses. That leaves extra for urban niceties like dinners out (“all kinds of great ethnic restaurants nearby,” Teri says) and pursuing passions like skiing.

New abode, new horizons: “We hit the neighbor lottery,” Teri says, with warm and welcoming residents on all four sides of their new home, which means way more socializing than they ever did living around four-legged friends. Group barbecues are a regular thing, there’s a community pool during the summer, “and even when it’s not so warm, we’ll wine taste with neighbors out on the back patio and enjoy the stars,” Rich says. “Of course, that means I need to put on makeup before I step outside,” Teri says with a laugh.

What they miss: So much. “We’ve lost our direct connection to the land,” says Teri, who grew up on a California sheep ranch and adored owning a farm as an adult. “I treasure those memories of going outside early in the morning and hearing the chickens and feeling the dew in the grass between my toes. You don’t get that in an urban housing development.” But Rich knows it was the responsible move to make. “We put our blood, sweat and tears into that farm, but I’d suffered a few injuries in recent years, and I certainly didn’t want anything worse to happen.”

Grooviest part of the move: Being close to the grandkids, ages 8 and 10, who live nearby. Rich volunteers at the children’s school, and both Rich and Teri are on backup duty for carpool pickup. “Being a more regular part of their lives really matters,” says Rich.

 

AARP Resources

If you’re in the market for a new home, visit the AARP Livability Index to learn about key features and services that support active and healthy aging in the neighborhoods you’re considering.

Make your home safer and more comfortable with the AARP HomeFit Guide, with tips to make every room in your house easy to use.

6 questions to ask yourself before making the big move

Why do you want to move? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you looking to be closer to your family? Or maybe you crave more sunshine. Be clear about your priorities.

What do you love about your current home that you can’t live without? Make sure your new location satisfies your must-have requirements.

What kind of lifestyle are you seeking? Consider the activities you enjoy now and whether you can reasonably pursue them in your new home.

What are your health care needs, and can those be met in your new home? Consider the quality, cost and proximity of medical services, especially if you have a condition that requires routine checkups and care.

Can you afford the cost of living in this new place? Take a hard look at your finances. Selling your home, saving the equity and moving to a more affordable area with lower housing costs can be a great way to stretch your retirement savings.

Will it be less costly to live in this new place over the long term? A lower cost of living now doesn’t guarantee a lower cost of living into the future. You have to consider whether it’s going to be sustainable and affordable over the long term in that location. Do careful research on the place you’re considering moving to and try to anticipate factors that may inflate your cost of living. —Alex Gailey, lead data reporter in personal finance for Bankrate

 

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