Marion's Blog

Rent versus Own

When Duke and I decided to retire and move out of the San Francisco Bay Area we made the decision to rent a house in Reno as a first step. While we were renting we could sell our house and then do some looking around to decide where we might like to settle. We ended renting a house in Del Webb's Sierra Canyon development in west Reno. Given where we are in our life renting makes a lot of sense both financially and for flexibility. It is interesting to look at the analysis that we have done of the pros and cons of renting versus owning. (All of these numbers are estimates.)

Renting

The Alpine model house next to us is for rent for $1449 per month.

Owning

The total cost of owning an Alpine model would be $1816 per month.

• Homeowners dues are $175 month
• Last time I looked the Alpine model was selling for $358,000. If you invested $358,000 at a 4% interest rate you can make $1,193 per month, so the cost of tying up your money is $1,193 per month.
• Taxes are about 1% which is $298 per month
• insurance at about $100 per month
• maintenance at $50 per month

Other considerations

• As renters we have no guarantee that the owner won't go into foreclosure or decide that he wants us to move out of his house.
• Renting means we can't do the things we would like to do to make the house more to our liking. That includes things like hardwood floors, different colored walls, and landscaping more to our liking.
• Renting means we don't bear the earthquake risk. If the house was destroyed in an earthquake we could just walk away.
• Renting allows us to try out living in this kind of a community without making a long term commitment.
• Renting means we will lose out on any future  increase or decrease of the price of the houses in this area.
• If we decide to move on we don't need to go through the hassle of selling the house.

What its like to live at Sierra Canyon by Del Webb

A couple of times I have received emails from people who are thinking about moving to Reno. They have read my blog and are wondering what it is like to live in a 55 and over community like Del Webb's Sierra Canyon. Recently someone asked me the following.

"We also thought about living in a retirement community but felt it may be full of
really old people and lifeless. Can you tell me more of your experiences of
retirement living in Reno and at Del Webb?"

I thought others might find my response to him interesting so here it is.

"Thanks so much for your email and kind comments about my blog.

When I told my girls that we were moving to a Del Webb community they were horrified that we would move to a place for "old people". Before we moved here we could never see ourselves living in an active adult community. But when we started looking for a place to live in Reno Sierra Canyon seemed like a good place to live since the houses are very nice and the rents are so reasonable.

We moved last July and it has been a great experience. I am sure there are lots of old sedentary people here but the people we have met have been just the opposite. If you have  looked at my blog you have probably seen all the hikes the hiking group takes. We have a lot of fun. The people in the group are really great, interesting, active people that I have enjoyed getting to know. In addition to hiking Sierra Canyon has lots of other activities too.

The gym always has people in it working out and I really love the yoga class. There are also Pilates classes, water aerobics classes, dance classes and lots more.

The people in our neighborhood organized a wine walk last week. We each chipped in $10. Thirty of us visited 8 houses (including ours) and tasted wine. It lasted from 1 until 4. Anyone visiting the neighborhood at 1 on Saturday would have been surprised to see people coming out of houses all at the same time carrying wine glasses. We met a lot of new people and had a lot of fun.

I want to join the bridge group and my husband and I often play pool. There was a tournament last Saturday. I hear that the photography group is great and the several of the people we hike with are in the book club.

The very best part about living here has been the people. I have never lived any place where it is so easy to get to know your neighbors. I mentioned this to a friend in the hiking group Monday and she said most people who move here tend to be social outgoing people.  I think that is true.

The down sides of living here are that you do pay homeowners dues (actually our landlord does) and the homeowners association is pretty strict about what you can and cannot do with your house. Of course this does protect home values.

My husband and I chose Reno because we wanted to live some place cheaper than California and Reno was a convenient place to rent while we waited for our house to sell. We haven't decided whether we will settle here permanently but we are seriously considering it. Reno has been a very pleasant surprise. It is a beautiful setting and there is sure a lot to do. Some of the people we hike with volunteer at the art museum. The museum sounds wonderful and working there sounds like fun so I want to check it out.

If you have any other questions please let me know."

 

Sold!

Duke and I are going out to dinner to celebrate tonight. Our house in Union City is sold! The sale of our house is a classic example of how prices in the San Francisco Bay Area have gone down. It was on the market for four months. This was our first offer and the house sold for $165,000 less than what a house like ours in our development sold for back in November of 2005..... Oh well, that is history and we have our money. We are happy.

There are a couple of other interesting parts of the experience.

• People always tell you how important it is to have fresh paint, new carpet and staging, all of which we did. It turns out that none of that mattered. The buyers were in escrow for a house like ours. They were offering less than the loan on that house and the bank was dragging out the closing process. Our buyers were in a hurry and decided not to buy the other house. They are from Los Angeles and bought our house without ever looking at it! We closed in less than 2 weeks. Can you believe it.
• You might think that once you move your personal possessions out of your house the cost of the homeowners insurance might go down. You would be wrong. As soon as we changed our mailing address our insurance company canceled our insurance. We had a terrible time finding someone who would sell us insurance on a house that no one was living in. We had been paying $1,800 for 12 months of homeowners insurance. The new insurance cost us $4,800 for six months!

My first year of retirement

I just passed the one year anniversary of my retirement so I thought it would be worth looking at what I said I would be doing when I retired and comparing it to what has happened. It has been a quite a year with lots of ups and downs. Back when I decided to retire I wrote a blog entry about the things I wanted to do. I'm including exerts from it here with comments about how things have turned out.

from  the bog about my plans..... "My career has certainly been a big part of how I define myself. In fact during hard times in my life my success at work greatly helped my self esteem. But at this point in my life I have lots of joys and interests outside of work and I really don't think I'll have too much trouble adjusting. And retiring now doesn't necessarily mean I'll never work again. It just means I'm quitting for now."

I haven't missed work at all. I love working for me. I love having my life to myself. I'll never say never, but I really can't see myself ever working for someone else again. I'm having too much fun.

Here is the list of things I said I wanted to do with my retirement. I've put comments after each one with my observations about what has really happened.

" 1. Spend more time with my Husband, my Daughters, my new Grandson, my family and my friends. There never seems to be enough time and now I'm hoping there will be."

I have certainly done some of this especially when I was still living in the Bay Area but one of the down sides of moving to Reno has been that I don't see enough of the family and friend we left behind and I really do miss them. Moving out of expensive California was part of the financial strategy that allowed me to retire at age 54. I love Reno and the new friends I am making  here but the down side is definitely missing my family and friends in California.

"2. Exercise more regularly - weight lifting and  walking. "

It is certainly easier to find the time to exercise without work getting in the way. I haven't been lifting weights but I have started yoga (I really love it!) and I have been swimming and of course doing a lot of hiking. The hiking has been awesome. The Sierra canyon Hiking Group  and the wonderful hiking opportunities around Reno have made hiking one of the very best things about retirement and moving.

" 3. Sell our house and move. We don't know where but exploring the possibilities will be a big part of the agenda for the next few years. "

We put our house on the market but unfortunately we did it in about the worst market for selling a house that I can remember. I don't want to jinx things but there may be light at the end of the tunnel on this front. The move we did. Since July we have lived in Reno. I love it here. Reno is much better then I ever expected. It is so nice to live in a smaller town with lots of amenities but less traffic and lots of fun places to explore and things to do. I wasn't sure about living in a Del Webb over 55 community but that has also exceeded expectations. We have met so many wonderful people and are having so much fun!

" 4. Improve my piano playing skills. I've taken lessons for the last several years and I am looking forward to having more time to practice. "

I did this until we moved. Then I gave away the piano with the idea that I would get a new one once we settled some place. So far it hasn't happened. I haven't touched a piano since mid June. I do miss it but I'm still debating whether I want to start playing again. I have very little talent and after all these years am still not a good piano player. But I do enjoy it. I play only for me and I probably will again some day but for now I am focusing on other things.

" 5. Blogging - I want to get to the point where I blog about interesting things every day. I want to improve my writing and blogging skills and I think the best way to do that is to just do it regularly. I also want to redesign my blog and explore some of the technology I've gotten behind on since I started my current job.

I guess it goes without saying I am still blogging. I really do love it. I'm still figuring out how to be interesting, how to improve my writing skills and how to improve my blog.  I still need to get better about blogging regularly and I still want to do some redesign and focus. My blogging like my life is a work in progress.

" 6. Travel - I'm looking forward to taking some long trips both within the US and abroad. Duke and I have talked about spending several months in Spain or Portugal or Australia or any of a whole list of other places. The idea is that if we rented a place and really explored an area then friends and family could come visit while we were there."

We have done some traveling. Our month long driving trip through Mexico last January was awesome. it verified for me how much I love traveling. Since then life has precluded any more travel for fun. I think once we sell the house this may change. I hope so.

" 7. Gardening - This is one of those things I've always thought I would like to do more of. We shall see. "

Other than helping Duke work on our yard in Union City this hasn't happened. It is one of the things that will be difficult to do in Reno's desert climate so this may be off the list. Time will tell.

" 8. Hiking - My goal is to do at least one long hike a week. "

Since moving to Reno and joining the Sierra Canyon hiking group I have been hiking twice a week and loving it. It certainly takes time and I didn't hike very much when I worked. Now that I have the time it is awesome to explore all the beautiful places to hike especially in the Sierras west of Reno.

" 9. Financial Planning - I'm hoping to do what it takes to complete the practical experience for my Certified Financial Planning certification. I'm still exploring how I will do this and then there is the question of how I will use the CFP once I get it. I've got lots of ideas to explore.

It seems like a real pity to waste the time and effort I put into taking all the classes and studying for and passing the CFP certification exam but the time allowed to get the necessary practical experience has almost passed and this is something I just don't think I want to do any more. It is too much like work. I learned a lot and I enjoyed the process but I think this is off my list.

" 10. Guitar - I keep thinking I'd like to start taking guitar lessons again."

I've done nothing about this. It is still on the maybe someday list.

" 11. Read - I love to read. "

I have done a lot of reading but I always want to do more. One cool side benefit is that I have received review copies of a DK book about Lincoln and a DK book of world history and have written reviews. I've also decided to read a book about each of the U.S. presidents.

"12. Programming - I haven't done it in many years but my degree is in Computer Science and for a long time I've been intrigued with the idea of working on an open source project."

I haven't touch this goal but this is something I am still determined to do. I think I need to determine what my first step should be.

New things I am adding to my list to possibly explore now that I am a year into my retirement include the following.

• Perhaps start volunteering at the Nevada Museum of art
• Learn to speak Spanish
• Become an amateur historian
• Knitting
• Geneology

My Mother's death was the one terribly low point for this year. I miss her. But other than her death it has been a good year and I am looking forward to my second year of retirement and to continuing to explore my goals and interests.

A Great House in Union City - For Sale in a Buyer's Market

We picked a really bad time to try to sell our house. Sales of existing homes fell 4.3% nationwide in August and San Francisco Bay Area house and condominium sales fell 25% to the lowest for an August in 15 years. I think our house is a great examples of the slump. We have priced it very competitively at more than 10% less than what similar houses were selling for a year ago but our agent says that nobody is even looking right now. It sure seems like a great time for someone to get a great deal. I am not worried because I know that in the long run it will sell and even at these lower prices we will still make a nice profit but still.....

You can see pictures of the house on our listing. We were down in the bay area Tuesday to see family
and do some yard work at the house.

I planted some more flowers. It was a picture perfect bay area day to be working in the garden.