Does Your Retirement Plan Include Affordable Senior Housing?
Much retirement advice that ranks highly on Google search engine results pages sounds like it was written for people who spent their working years in a world vastly different from the world where you live. For example, the writers of retirement advice websites tend to assume that people who are approaching retirement age and beginning to formulate their retirement plans own their own homes and owe little or no mortgage debt. This type of content sounds downright aspiration to the oldest millennials, who are old enough to start thinking about retirement but who have reached the conclusion that, unless their parents give them money for a down payment, they will never be able to afford to buy a house; for the younger generation, homeownership is only within reach of the sons and daughters of homeowners. Where does that leave the upcoming generation of retirees, who are, for the most part, renters? You can barely afford your rent with your full-time job, which doesn’t leave you any room in your budget to save for retirement? Before long, it will just be you and your Social Security check. Now is the time to start strategizing about finding affordable senior housing and to contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
The Broken Promise of Tucker Tower: A Cautionary Tale
Affordable housing initiatives are your best bet for retirement housing if your best-case scenario involves living paycheck to paycheck until you are in your 60s. Affordable housing developments are reserved for people whose income is a certain percentage of the area median income (AMI). As retirees whose only income is Social Security fall well below the AMI, many seniors easily qualify for affordable housing. Some affordable housing developments are exclusively for seniors.
One such development is Tucker Tower, which opened in March 2024 in Miami-Dade County. All 120 of its units are for people above the age of 55 whose income is between 30 and 50 percent of the AMI. The units quickly filled, as demand for affordable housing for seniors in South Florida is enormous; $618 per month for a one-bedroom apartment is hard to beat in Miami-Dade County, or almost anywhere in Florida. The enthusiasm was short-lived, though. By the end of April, management had sent a notice to residents, informing them that their monthly rent would increase by more than $100 beginning in July. The reason for the change was that the AMI in South Florida had increased. The moral of the story is to find out whether your apartment complex has rent control before you sign the lease. Tucker Tower does not include rent control, so the landlords were within their rights to increase the rent.
Contact David Toback About Paying for Housing as a Retiree
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you be realistic about your financial situation and find housing that you can afford, even if Social Security is your only source of retirement income. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/seniors-left-scrambling-cash-affordable-101400078.html
