10 house hunters search for forever homes

Top center tiny house, Shutterstock; all others, Getty Images (5) En español Downsizing has its upsides. Research shows that older Americans who move as part of a retirement plan tend to be

happier than those who stay put. Here’s a look at where and why several age-50-plus single people and couples are relocating. We invite you to make your own picks by scrolling to the bottom

of each scenario. Click on the winning home button to read about each home and see how your picks stack up against our home hunters’ final selections. (Note that in some cases the choices

described reflect representative examples rather than actual properties considered, and prices are largely pre-pandemic.) THE SCENARIO: SMALL-TOWN CHARM Photo by Theo Stroomer HOUSE HUNTERS:

FRANCK AND TRACY LOUIS-MARIE, 52 AND 57 The minute their nest emptied this year, the Louis-Maries decided to leave Los Angeles. “We literally wanted to blaze new trails,” Tracy says. “And

drive fewer freeways!” Franck adds. On the wish list: a city on a “human scale, definitely not sprawling,” Franck says. Someplace, Tracy explains, “where people walk along a tree-lined Main

Street, with public art and historic buildings and friendly mom-and-pop shops.” Also, access to the great outdoors. And after years of mostly renting in L.A., they wanted to own a two- or

three-bedroom home with a big yard. BUDGET: $450,000 MOVING FROM: Marina del Rey, California, apartment rental FAMILY STATUS: Married 25 years; two 20-something kids EMPLOYMENT: Tracy:

part-time adviser to companies on social-impact policies; Franck: art director for entertainment companies. Both work remotely. FOREVER HOME CONTENDERS 1. Grass Valley, California 2. Grand

Junction, Colorado 3. Portland, Oregon   See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: TIME TO SUPER-DOWNSIZE? Reed Young HOUSE HUNTER: BETSY BARBOUR, 66 When rising fees

priced Betsy out of her condo, she needed a housing solution she could cover with partial Social Security, part-time jobs and limited savings. “I couldn’t afford to completely retire,” she

says. She sold her two-bedroom condo for $75,000. BUDGET: $500/month MOVING FROM: 1,200-square-foot Fort Myers, Florida, condo that she owned outright FAMILY STATUS: Divorced; one adult son,

one grandchild EMPLOYMENT: Retired field linguist (she created written languages out of oral ones); working part-time jobs as a specialist in cross-cultural communications FOREVER HOME

CONTENDERS 1. Fort Myers, Florida 2. Tavares, Florida 3. Fort Myers, Florida See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: THE CABIN IS CALLING Ackermann Gruber HOUSE HUNTERS:

CHRIS AND KATHLEEN REWEY, 69 AND 53 The Reweys expected to retire to a house they built years ago outside Madison. But when COVID hit, Chris obsessed about a log cabin his dad’s dad had

built on a lake in northern Wisconsin. “My uncles sold it in the 1990s, leaving a hole in my heart,” he says. Meanwhile, in 2021, the couple bought a winter home in Panama City, Florida,

where they could work remotely and rent during the summer. With winter covered, whither the rest of the year? BUDGET: $560,000 MOVING FROM: Madison, Wisconsin FAMILY STATUS: Married 25

years; no kids EMPLOYMENT: Chris: head of a software company; Kathleen:   sales executive for a social-care organization FOREVER HOME CONTENDERS 1. Panama City, Florida 2. Minocqua,

Wisconsin 3. Eastern Tennessee See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: FOLLOW THE PARENTS OR FLY FREE? Caleb Alvarado HOUSE HUNTER: LAURA CAMPBELL, 55 Laura’s active

80-something parents regularly rented a winter place in Florida, so she decided to move south from the family’s Connecticut base and stay in Florida year-round. “It was important to me to be

close to them,” says Laura, who arrived in Delray Beach in October 2019. Then came COVID-19. “My parents decided they wanted to live out their whole lives in Connecticut, where they still

had so many friends. I had a big decision to make.” BUDGET: $2,200/month MOVING FROM: Delray Beach, Florida, apartment rental FAMILY STATUS: Divorced; two adult sons EMPLOYMENT: Life coach

and consultant FOREVER HOME CONTENDERS 1. Golden, Colorado 2. Delray Beach, Florida 3. Woodbridge, Connecticut See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: A PLACE FOR DAD

Gabriela Hasbun HOUSE HUNTER: BOB GRANT, 71 Grant was living in a condo near the Vegas Strip when he had a stroke seven years ago. In California, his five children — all ex-pro athletes —

rallied, and his daughter, who lives in the Bay Area, took Bob in. But after several years, she simply found it too hard to care for Grant and three (now four) young kids. BUDGET: $175,000

MOVING FROM: Las Vegas condo FAMILY STATUS: Divorced; five adult kids, 10 grandchildren EMPLOYMENT: Retired chemical engineer FOREVER HOME CONTENDERS 1. Bay Area, California 2. Bay Area,

California 3. Bay Area, California See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: SELLIN’ OFF, MOVIN’ ON Peter Ross HOUSE HUNTERS: QUINN AND VIVIAN GOLDEN, 61 AND 59 “We told

our kids, ‘Mom and Dad aren’t going to retire here, so grow your wings and fly,’ ” says Quinn, whose job “got COVIDed” in 2020, as he puts it. The Goldens sold their 2,200-square-foot

hilltop cabin for $400,000, and sold motorcycles, boats, even a Model A Ford, to help bridge the gap until full retirement. But they needed a place to live. BUDGET: $400,000 MOVING FROM:

Alton, New Hampshire, hilltop log home FAMILY STATUS: Married 36 years; six adult kids EMPLOYMENT: Quinn: retired paper-mill sales professional; Vivian: retired stay-at-home mom FOREVER HOME

CONTENDERS 1. Portland, Maine 2. Everywhere Road Trip 3. Dansville, New York See the Winning home ------------------------- THE SCENARIO: EYES ON THE SOUTH Andrew Hetherington HOUSE HUNTER:

DONNA DEANS, 68 Donna Deans arrived in New York City in 1977, right after finishing college. She had planned to live there forever. But when the pandemic shuttered the furniture company

where she worked, she kissed the Big Apple goodbye, looking to the South. Her $1,700-a-month, rent-stabilized one-bedroom place was “a bargain for New York City,” she says, but not cheap

enough to allow her to live off Social Security and her 401(k) for the rest of her life. Her goal: to find someplace under $1,200 a month in a modern building, with a deck or garden. And

“you don’t move to the South without excellent AC,” she adds. BUDGET: $1,200/month MOVING FROM: Brooklyn, New York, apartment rental MARITAL STATUS: Single; no kids, dating EMPLOYMENT:

Recently retired furniture salesperson FOREVER HOME CONTENDERS 1. Sanford, Florida 2. Wilson, North Carolina 3. Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia See the Winning home ------------------------- _David

Hochman, a contributing editor to AARP The Magazine, is a journalist and features writer based in Los Angeles. His December 2020 AARP Bulletin story on nursing homes, “18 Weeks,” has won

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