Should Affordable Housing For Seniors Be Part Of Your Estate Plan?

If you own your house with little or no mortgage debt, then living comfortably in retirement is within reach, even if you have no employer-provided retirement savings, and your only income will be your Social Security check.  If you need more cash, you can take out a reverse mortgage or ask family members to move in with you to contribute to expenses.  You can even transfer possession of your house to a non-spouse family member who lives with you and contributes to your care, such as your son, daughter, or sibling, so that you can qualify for Medicaid nursing home care and your caregiver family member will still get to keep the house and own it after your estate goes to probate.  If you don’t own your house, your safety net for retirement is considerably less robust.  Home ownership is out of reach for an increasing number of working age people; journalists have even started saying that, unless your parents own a house, you will probably never be able to afford to buy one.  Where will you live when you retire, then?  Certainly, you can’t continue living in your expensive apartment which you can only barely afford with your employment income.  Affordable housing for seniors exists, but preparing to live in it and pay for it takes a lot of strategy.  For help thinking realistically about your modest retirement, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

A Comfortable Retirement on a Fixed Income?

Affordable housing developments are not easy to find, but they make all the difference for the people who live in them.  Some affordable housing complexes have some or all of their units reserved from seniors.  Even the ones that do not are open to retirees.  In other words, if the building is open to applicants whose income is, for example, between 30 and 50 percent of the area median income, retirees may qualify based on their income, since it tends to be lower than the median, as the area median income (AMI) also includes people who are employed full time.

When Affordable Housing Dreams Fall Apart

Tucker Tower in Miami-Dade County seemed like a dream come true.  All 120 of its apartments are reserved for seniors whose income is between 30 and 50 percent of the AMI for South Florida, and, unsurprisingly, these units filled up quickly when the building opened in March 2024.  The residents soon received an unpleasant surprise, though.  Since the AMI in South Florida had increased, the rent was about to increase by more than $100 per month; the new rent prices went into effect in July, making the budgets of the Tucker Tower residents much tighter than they had anticipated.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Preparing for a Modest Retirement

An estate planning lawyer can help you plan to cover your housing expenses in retirement, even if your only income comes from Social Security.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/seniors-left-scrambling-cash-affordable-101400078.html