Older homeowners having a hard time finding a new place to live amid tough real estate market | Lehigh Valley Regional

It’s a tough housing market, especially for older people.

“It is hard, you need to be there for them,” said Bob Dandi, an Associate Broker with RE/MAX Central.

While it may be a great time for older people to cash in on their larger, family homes they no longer need and downsize, Dandi explains it may not be so easy to find a new place to live. Especially in the super competitive small to mid-range housing market.

“You are competing with buyers that are buying for investment, you’re competing with out-of-area, higher economic buyers that are coming in with a lot of cash,” Dandi said.

On top of which, the types of homes older people look for – single-story ranch styles – are even more difficult to find, and there aren’t that many new ones being built.

“A one-story home is expensive to build. Imagine a home like this, that’s two stories, you’re putting square footage and getting economies of scale by putting half that square footage on top of the other half, you’re not building as much roof, you’re not building as much anything,” Dandi said.

Dandi recommends older buyers start thinking about where they’re going next, before they make any decisions.

“Start looking for where you want to go before you put your home up on the market. It’s very important. I tell anyone who’s trying to sell, there is a lot of runway until you put that sale sign in our front yard,” Dandi said.

It’s also a good idea for older homeowners looking to sell to have their house pre-inspected and checked to make sure it’s up to code. Making updates now will save time later.

It’s also a good idea to get more comfortable with technology, so that it’s easier to find and move on something you want to buy.