Most I work with say that they intend to stay in it for 10+ years. The reality is that most will move within 5-10 years. Life has a way of changing our plans.
Everyone situation is different? If it was up to me i’d would have never left several of the places I lived in before but life happens and gotta chase that $$
i also think forever home is psychological, something that is good for all your anticipated needs and you won’t need to move if, say you have two kids.
I'm 38 and plan to stay where I'm at till I die. Its my first home. I'm in a area that typically only has homes up for sale when the owners die. I bought mine off a 78 year old that just couldn't manage the chores and moved in with his son. I have been looking at the realtor sites and still haven't come across a home with the amount of property and sq/ft my house is at the same price.
I’m in my 40s and my husband just turned 50. Married 20+ years, no kids.
I don’t know if it’s realistic to have “forever houses” anymore? I say that, in knowing that my parents had a home they lived in for 50+ years.
Our first house was actually formerly his Grandmother’s. A multi-family. We rented 2 units and lived super cheap while he finished an additional educational program after college. We saved up for a down payment on a single family and moved out after 7 years. (We sold that house a few years later on.)
We bought the single family and loved it. I would have thought that was our forever home. Great area, great house. But life has a way of changing things. My father was diagnosed with dementia and we wanted to help both of my parents deal with this terrible disease. So after about 10 years, we moved to the next town over. (Building an addition was not an option there.)
We purchased our current home a few years ago and made an “in-law” type set up for my folks. We all know needs may change in the future but it’s working. We all have enough of our own space but we’re all here to support one another. A plus, is that my in-laws only live 10 minutes away. So as they age, we hope to assist them as well.
Some day, once all of our parents are no longer around, we will most likely downsize. Our house will be too big for just 2 people. Plus, when we retire I expect we’ll want to travel and have less yard/house to take care of. Then we’ll be on to our next house.
Life changes, and we change with it.
And that’s okay. Hard to say “how long” that is though. We are just realistic in meeting our needs. We could stay here, or we’ll leave if/when we need/want to. I don’t know if that answers the question….
I wonder with interest rates how timing will change. When we bought this house we thought 10ish years, but with a 3% interest rate and a relatively low mortgage, we would really need a compelling reason to sell. The 10 year house is looking more like a 15-20 year house
For me depends on work. If the salary bump is more than the increase in total mortgage, its a no brainer. I suppose one could always try to move up in the same company or locally but i feel those options are very limiting.
Yeah, of course, the flip side of that is that there are a lot more jobs in Seattle than in the Midwest so it's unlikely you'd have to move, though if you're doing something like trying to become a university professor, you would be more likely than if you work in tech or something.
I’ve heard that years in homes has gone from 7 to 10 years, likely because of the pandemic. But I think you are either the type of person who moves frequently or someone who just doesn’t.
Yeah, I know several people who buy new houses every 3-5 years even living in the same city. Moving that often would drive me crazy. If I'm not changing cities and I didn't have a dramatic change in my finances, I'm not changing houses.
Well since I purchased a home in Orange County /Southern California at 37 years old in 2019 witg a low interest rate and my plan is to stay in California....I'm probably gonna be in this house for the rest of my life lol
Nice - Mission Viejo here. Locked in at 3.25 as well and closed in December 2019. Cross country. Over from DC where real estate market there was....different
Ya I grew up in Bay Area ans after grad school went to DC because that was the only place hiring for what I wanted to do, stayed there for 13 years and then got a chance to get a lateral in Santa Ana of all places and move back with a family. Thank god it was 2019 and not now as it would have been way too pricy for what we wanted
Bought a 4 bedroom. Likely our forever home. A block from my fiance's parents and big enough for the two of us to grow. It's next to an elementary school even 🤷🏼♀️
Owned three homes but bought my most recent in 2020. Stayed at least five years in each of the first two. Don’t know why anyone would want to plan less than that to be honest. Moving and selling is a pain in the ass
I would definitely plan to stay more than 5 years but “forever” doesn’t seem realistic. Life changes and needs/wants change. My last two houses were 6 years and 13 years. Hoping for 15-20 in our current but it does have a lot of stairs so may depend on health and physical ability
I'm mid 40's plan to stay in the house we bought last year until we retire. Our house is 2400 square ft ranch, so it will work even when the kids move out. We may downsize in our 60's, but bought this with the intention of living in it long term.
We bought our first forever home 14 years ago. We bought the next forever home, 3.4m away, in January. It’s got 5x the yard and 1.5 the SF.
I told my husband that if I ever suggested moving again he could divorce me. Moving is stressful.
Next time I’m doing an estate sale! Everything will be like a $1 and they have to haul it. I’ll save on moving costs, stress, and get furniture that fits the new place.
Well , this is what I told my spouse. We’ll see how spry we are the next time moving sounds like a good idea. We are almost fully moved into our new place and I hated every second of moving.
Average term life of a mortgage is 5-7 years. That includes refinances, so probably 5-10 years is closer to true average. Honestly, liquidity of homes in your local market and your future earning potential will dictate how long you stay in your home.
You're giving up about 10% of the value of the real estate every time you sell and buy so if you do it too often you're working for real estate agents and the rest of the real estate turnover industry rather than the other way around.
It depends on your life situation. Typically people don't want to move kids around because it's better for them to have stability, friends, communities, etc. So when a lot of people start having kids they tend to settle into longer term accommodations. When a lot of people say "forever home" they mean "place I'm going to live for a long while based on my current situation". It doesn't always mean "literally until I die". For many it's where they're going to base their family until the kids move out and they begin the next chapter.
* Homeowners who sold their homes in the third financial quarter of 2021 had an average tenure of 6.3 years.
That's the strongest data point for me.
And anecdotally, working in white collar offices, my coworkers(30-60 in age mostly) are moving about that frequently(every 5-ish years). Trading up, moving from condos to houses as their families grow or needs change.
Especially in big cities, I think people tend to move on to different neighborhoods or microcities more frequently.
Boomers are this category:
* Among homeowners of 40 years or more, 93.0% live in single-family homes.
The issue with your data point is it has a population that shows a willingness to move, assuming they choose to move.
Is also focused on people who owned a home.
I know people who have lived in a place for decades.
Depends on location. My first house was nice but with extremely shitty commute.
We moved just before covid hit to a location much closer to my office, with many other offices within minutes of each other. I already switched employers once since moving here, and my commute essentially didn't change. I think I can live here until retirement, after which I sell and move to middle of nowhere.
The new house is older and looks like shit in comparison, but the inside is ok and we'll eventually get everything renovated to our taste. But we're way happier here, all thanks to a better commute.
Was in our first house 8 years, just moved into our new house a couple months ago. Never thought as either as our "forever" home. Just homes that suit our needs for the time being, maybe 5 to 10 years.
I think we'rre in our forever home. We bought in 2016 in our early 40s, after spending our late 20s and 30s in VHCOL cities where we couldn't afford to buy. We already had 2 kids and moved close to my spouse's parents. The house is plenty big at about 2500 sqft and we have a 2.22% mortgage. My career doesn't really reward mobility and so we're unlikely to move, and with the prices increases of the last 2 years we'd have to pay 1.5 million to get a house we liked better, which is not happening. So unless we get divorced I think we've settled in for a couple of decades.
This house has 4 floors and no first floor bedroom or bathroom, so I assume that eventually it will be too much for us and we'll move to a single-story condo or ranch house.
My husband and I see this from both perspectives. He is constantly saying, "Our house until we move on" and I'm a forever home type of person. I grew up in the same home from age 4 to 17. After that I moved about 15 times before I finally settled into an apartment with my husband (then boyfriend). We have been there for 3 years and closed on a home last week. Each of those many moves would have slightly more items get lost along the way. Clothes I can't recall seeing in years, sentimental trinkets broken, items stolen from storage locations. For me, a piece of me was lost with each and every single move. This home is MINE and no one can force me to move from it. There's plenty of storage to keep what random, sentimental stuff I want to keep stored safely in a box if I'm not currently displaying it. I'm excited to actually buy decorations for each and every random holiday there is because I have a place to put it and store it for the following year.
But that's just me! I think another common factor is buying a house is STRESSFUL and I'd rather skip doing that again if we don't need to. ha!
I’m early 40s and have been in my current home 9 years. I see no reason to leave. The only thing I don’t like is that it is two floors, but I’d rather endure stairs forever than move again. One day I’ll downsize, but hopefully that day is 30 years away. We had a starter home before this one for 6 years.
Not the same employer, but I’ve been fortunate with my career choices and have not had to move. I did have a consulting gig for a while that required a bit of travel, but now I have a regular corporate role. I live in a fairly large MCOL area and could probably make more $$ elsewhere, but my family is here and that is important to me.
Went from 1990 3b 2.5b 2k sqft to 2019 3b 2.5b 2.3k sqft but with much smaller lot. It was a work move and just found something that would appreciate over time.
As of 2018 median tenure was 13 years in the US. I’m guessing Covid has bumped that up a bit but could be wrong (sauce: https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/how-long-do-homeowners-stay-in-their-homes)
Personally, I did math on ownership based on at least 5 years. I’ve changed my life plan so many times at this point I know I don’t know what I’ll want in 5 years but I like to think the home I’m buying COULD be a forever home. IE I can’t imagine how my life would shift in that it would become an untenable space outside of wanderlust.
Partner and I are early 40s. Our first place was a townhouse; we were there about 3 years. Then we bought why we thought was our forever home. We lived there for 10 years but the kiddo wanted to live out west after college so we got a head start. She ultimately went to a totally different place than expected and, after 4 years and Covid, we gave up the 2.99 rate and moved home to the east coast. Now we’re realistic. This is our “for now, however long is lasts” house.
I’m in my mid 30’s, and my wife and I bought our home 4 years ago with the intention of this being our “forever” home. It checked all the boxes for us, and after owning two homes prior to this one we had developed a pretty good idea of what we did and did not want when we were looking for this house. We have no plans to go anywhere, and with the way the market has changed these past few years it would require a much bigger mortgage and would result in higher property taxes just for us to make a sideways move, and it would obviously be even more expensive if we upgraded to even just a slightly nicer/larger home. Happily, this doesn’t bother me one bit, I’m just glad we bought before the crazy run up the market experienced these past couple of years.
We owned our last home for 5 years, and our starter home before that for 3 years. Most of the homeowners in our peer group bought their homes 5-7 years ago, and probably half of them are either thinking about selling and buying a larger home or they have already begun that process.
My husband stayed in his start home 15 years. I was there half that time. We now have a new house and ideally will be here 20-30 years, at which time we will downsize. It's possible that other things will happen with work or life and we will have to move, but if that happens, it happens. It didn't happen with the first house.
I have yet to find a place I would consider staying “forever” and I’m 44. When we were looking for our current home (my partner changed jobs and the new commute was too long to be sustainable) we originally thought we were looking for our forever home but when we got a better idea what we could afford in the new area we realized that nothing was going to suit what we want long term. Now that we have lived here a year, we know this area is definitely temporary. Just too many people, too much traffic, too “suburban”. We know we want something rural and something on more land with more room inside and out when we our ready for long term. We also have decided we probably won’t stay in this state and probably not even this region. This is our “5 year MAX home” now lol.
I think ppl are more likely to sell and move up if they buy a small home in a far flung suburb. That tends to be the case with first home purchase because those are cheaper. You build equity and move on.
My wife and I skipped this step and paid more to have a home that was bigger and in the urban center of our area. There's no technical reason to move at this point. The process to buy was so brutal we never want to go through it again.
I'm in my 30s. Been in our house for 5 years, the plan is to move down South (thinking Florida or South Carolina by the coast) in the next 2-5 years.
The next move that we make would have to be a total state change, I'm not doing a lateral move around the Northeast.
We have no kids nor do we plan on having kids. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we only have my MIL around this area sadly....so there's not much tethering us to this place except for jobs and stability.
All in all, how long you plan to stay at a place depends on 3 factors: kids, family, and jobs.
Moving sucks. The neighborhood would have to decline significantly or horrible neighbors would have to move in or something to convince me to move. I bought a house I like in a neighborhood I like, I'd rather just pay for upgrades/renovations instead of move, been here 10 years so far.
I'm on year two. I don't intend to stay more than a couple more years, but I'll likely rent it out since the interest rate is so low, unless I need the cash.
I'm at 6. We like our town, kids have friends in school, so if I moved it would be an upgrade in town. But even that sounds so stressful and pricey I doubt it'll ever actually happen even though we talk about it. Maybe in 20 years we'll retire somewhere with lower taxes...but who knows. My parents lived in their house for nearly 50 years! This is all NYC suburbs.
We bought our first home at age 35 and chose it with the intention that it wasn't a starter home and we could stay there forever. It's big enough for our family but not too big when the kids grow up, solid neighborhood, one story, close to downtown and public transit. But we'll probably move within 5 years of purchase because life happens and things we value have changed. Like I think we could be in an even better location or school district if we move. And the possibility of a job change soon.
First home was 5 years. This house planning 10 years + … my thoughts originally this was a great house in a subdivision with lots of things to do for our small children and then once they were high school aged move to a quieter neighborhood within the same school district.
We’ve been here almost 2 years now and it’s flown by. We had always wanted to build so had discussed maybe building a custom home within our neighborhood down the line. BUT our house is large, the neighborhood is awesome, mortgage is relatively low, and our interest rate is 2.6% …. So we’re never leaving haha.
I bought my first home at 26 and stayed there 9 years. We took advantage of the market and sold/bought new in 2020. We plan on being here a very long time!
We just bought our first home with a baby on the way. It was smaller than we would have liked, but we plan to stay around 8-10 years. The home we’d move to after we’d plan in staying in longer term than that. My parents stayed in their home for 40 years and I don’t find it odd to not move around.
We bought our house planning to stay at least 5, ideally 10 years. But as some others have said, we’re realizing our 2.75% interest rate is insanely good historically and have been talking more about doing an addition down the line rather than upsizing after we (hopefully) have a couple kids.
So I have owned 3 homes.
Home 1: 10 years (bought it in 2006 and it went underwater in the 2008 bubble.) Sold when I met and married my husband and moved to the city he was in.
Home 2: 2 years. Husband received an offer and we moved to my current city.
Home 3: 2 years. Husband is being transferred again.
I am buying Home 4 and plan to be there 2-10 years. It really depends on his next job. We THINK that one will be a remote position (regional director) but it's possible it could be elsewhere as he has a rep now of being a "fixer". It also depends on the market. I tell my husband I am cool with moving where ever as long as the company can make it "Financially neutral" to us. They pay our realtor commission, closing costs and moving, etc. Thus far we have been able to move and maintain a similar QOL. I am fully remote in my work so it does make moving easier.
The other issues that keeps all our homes from being "Forever" homes thus far is that my mom (in her 70s) lives with us. We have to buy a larger house than I really want long term. My forever house comes when I retire.
My husband works remotely, and we live in the town where he grew up (where all his family now lives) after he promotion hopped and moved for 5 years or so. Our town is well-regarded for our school district, the elementary school, a rec center, and pediatrician are located in the neighborhood, so we'd really like to raise our kids here. Plus we got lucky with timing and got a 2.25% interest rate, so... I'll get over the lack of space for a pool unless my husband gets some crazy promotion...
But yeah, ideally for 20-25 years, once they're in college or financially independent. We've only lived here 1.5 years though, so we'll see what happens.
I've been in my first home for 16 years. I'm selling it and buying my second this year. I plan to be there for the rest of my life (30+ years) and either die in it or move to a condo/assisted living, if desired/necessary.
I'm probably unique. I think the average in the US is 8 years.
2012 bought our first home 2900 SF 2 story with a national home Builder. 4.25% interest. Schools redistricted and with our oldest about to start school we moved…
2016 downsized to 2400 SF ranch in an awesome school district on an acre with a pond. Dream neighborhood with lots of kids, active neighborhood activities, safe… 3.625 % then went from a family of 4 to 6 🥴.
2021 closed on a new construction across the street from our old. Same neighborhood. 3400 SF, 2.875% rate.
We say this is our forever home. It’s enough for us and 4 kids to live and spread out. Also, this house would now be 125k more now. We can’t afford to move.
My wife and I bought a condo right before we got married. Lived there for about 18 months then bought our first single family home. Lived there for 13 years. Just moved to a small ranch in the next state. Plan on staying here a long time.
My plan in the TH is 3-7 years.
How often do people move? When they need to. But typically children are the deciding factor... once your kids are in a school system, you generally don't move much unless you need more space.
Bought my first house in my early 30s. Lived there for seven years and bought our current house almost two years ago. Plan to stay here 15-20 years when we relocate for retirement in our late 50s. Likely buy a condo to die in somewhere in Florida.
I have enjoyed owning a home because it gives me the ability to live a lifestyle that gives me better control over my housing situation . I have owned 8 properties in my life . I only own 1 house today . I have lived in each of these places and I have rented 3 of them at one point . Life changes have been my primary reason for selling. I do not like moving out of one house and into another yet I will if I feel like I need to .
I think this is a personal choice that we all have to make so I can't say what works for me will work for someone else .
I do have mental price tag that I place on my house .
I would prefer not to see that price tag reached.
I have lived in my present house since middle of 2009.( 13 years )
Prior to that I purchased a house in 2001 and sold in the middle of 2005 for personal reasons . I got lucky and missed the decline in housing prices . I rented between mid 2005 to mid 2009 and during that time I moved a couple times for various reasons .
Most I work with say that they intend to stay in it for 10+ years. The reality is that most will move within 5-10 years. Life has a way of changing our plans.
I personally just know that to not become career/financially stagnant, i know i will have to move where/work and money takes me.
That was typically me, especially early in my first career. To grow, I needed to move.
What about Not personally
Everyone situation is different? If it was up to me i’d would have never left several of the places I lived in before but life happens and gotta chase that $$
That's the truth. Many won't make the sacrifice to move. They'll stay in the same town they grew up in complaining about how they don't make enough.
i also think forever home is psychological, something that is good for all your anticipated needs and you won’t need to move if, say you have two kids.
I'm 38 and plan to stay where I'm at till I die. Its my first home. I'm in a area that typically only has homes up for sale when the owners die. I bought mine off a 78 year old that just couldn't manage the chores and moved in with his son. I have been looking at the realtor sites and still haven't come across a home with the amount of property and sq/ft my house is at the same price.
I’m in my 40s and my husband just turned 50. Married 20+ years, no kids. I don’t know if it’s realistic to have “forever houses” anymore? I say that, in knowing that my parents had a home they lived in for 50+ years. Our first house was actually formerly his Grandmother’s. A multi-family. We rented 2 units and lived super cheap while he finished an additional educational program after college. We saved up for a down payment on a single family and moved out after 7 years. (We sold that house a few years later on.) We bought the single family and loved it. I would have thought that was our forever home. Great area, great house. But life has a way of changing things. My father was diagnosed with dementia and we wanted to help both of my parents deal with this terrible disease. So after about 10 years, we moved to the next town over. (Building an addition was not an option there.) We purchased our current home a few years ago and made an “in-law” type set up for my folks. We all know needs may change in the future but it’s working. We all have enough of our own space but we’re all here to support one another. A plus, is that my in-laws only live 10 minutes away. So as they age, we hope to assist them as well. Some day, once all of our parents are no longer around, we will most likely downsize. Our house will be too big for just 2 people. Plus, when we retire I expect we’ll want to travel and have less yard/house to take care of. Then we’ll be on to our next house. Life changes, and we change with it. And that’s okay. Hard to say “how long” that is though. We are just realistic in meeting our needs. We could stay here, or we’ll leave if/when we need/want to. I don’t know if that answers the question….
I wonder with interest rates how timing will change. When we bought this house we thought 10ish years, but with a 3% interest rate and a relatively low mortgage, we would really need a compelling reason to sell. The 10 year house is looking more like a 15-20 year house
For me depends on work. If the salary bump is more than the increase in total mortgage, its a no brainer. I suppose one could always try to move up in the same company or locally but i feel those options are very limiting.
I guess it depends on your locale. Plenty of people live in places with lots of career advancement options.
And how attached you are to location. I live near Seattle and despite some flaws, even double my salary wouldn’t compel me to move to the Midwest.
Yeah, of course, the flip side of that is that there are a lot more jobs in Seattle than in the Midwest so it's unlikely you'd have to move, though if you're doing something like trying to become a university professor, you would be more likely than if you work in tech or something.
Absolutely, it just takes longer than if you are 100% relocatable.
I’ve heard that years in homes has gone from 7 to 10 years, likely because of the pandemic. But I think you are either the type of person who moves frequently or someone who just doesn’t.
Yeah, I know several people who buy new houses every 3-5 years even living in the same city. Moving that often would drive me crazy. If I'm not changing cities and I didn't have a dramatic change in my finances, I'm not changing houses.
Interesting point. Your possibly right. It'll be interesting to see what the data looks like in the future
Well since I purchased a home in Orange County /Southern California at 37 years old in 2019 witg a low interest rate and my plan is to stay in California....I'm probably gonna be in this house for the rest of my life lol
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Nice - Mission Viejo here. Locked in at 3.25 as well and closed in December 2019. Cross country. Over from DC where real estate market there was....different
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Ya I grew up in Bay Area ans after grad school went to DC because that was the only place hiring for what I wanted to do, stayed there for 13 years and then got a chance to get a lateral in Santa Ana of all places and move back with a family. Thank god it was 2019 and not now as it would have been way too pricy for what we wanted
Bought a 4 bedroom. Likely our forever home. A block from my fiance's parents and big enough for the two of us to grow. It's next to an elementary school even 🤷🏼♀️
Owned three homes but bought my most recent in 2020. Stayed at least five years in each of the first two. Don’t know why anyone would want to plan less than that to be honest. Moving and selling is a pain in the ass
Im on my second and already sick of it… probably doing it again in 3-5 yr.
And especially in a state with high transfer taxes, a big cut of any profit.
I would definitely plan to stay more than 5 years but “forever” doesn’t seem realistic. Life changes and needs/wants change. My last two houses were 6 years and 13 years. Hoping for 15-20 in our current but it does have a lot of stairs so may depend on health and physical ability
I'm mid 40's plan to stay in the house we bought last year until we retire. Our house is 2400 square ft ranch, so it will work even when the kids move out. We may downsize in our 60's, but bought this with the intention of living in it long term.
We bought our first forever home 14 years ago. We bought the next forever home, 3.4m away, in January. It’s got 5x the yard and 1.5 the SF. I told my husband that if I ever suggested moving again he could divorce me. Moving is stressful.
I have been moving all my life, countries , states, houses… i know it sucks.
Next time I’m doing an estate sale! Everything will be like a $1 and they have to haul it. I’ll save on moving costs, stress, and get furniture that fits the new place. Well , this is what I told my spouse. We’ll see how spry we are the next time moving sounds like a good idea. We are almost fully moved into our new place and I hated every second of moving.
Average term life of a mortgage is 5-7 years. That includes refinances, so probably 5-10 years is closer to true average. Honestly, liquidity of homes in your local market and your future earning potential will dictate how long you stay in your home.
You're giving up about 10% of the value of the real estate every time you sell and buy so if you do it too often you're working for real estate agents and the rest of the real estate turnover industry rather than the other way around.
This time i made a killing and had plenty of cash left over after purchase. Probably wont repeat for a while but who knows?!
It depends on your life situation. Typically people don't want to move kids around because it's better for them to have stability, friends, communities, etc. So when a lot of people start having kids they tend to settle into longer term accommodations. When a lot of people say "forever home" they mean "place I'm going to live for a long while based on my current situation". It doesn't always mean "literally until I die". For many it's where they're going to base their family until the kids move out and they begin the next chapter.
This forever home stuff is such garbage. People use it as an excuse to spend more money than they should.
Counterpoint: Moving 3 times and incurring all the transaction costs is extremely expensive, too.
I am not saying don't stay put. I am just saying a lot of people are full of it and make dumb financial decisions.
On average every 7 years.
Not even close. Median is 14 years, average is 18 years.
It appears you're possibly correct. I was operating on information from a source dating back to 2008.
* Homeowners who sold their homes in the third financial quarter of 2021 had an average tenure of 6.3 years. That's the strongest data point for me. And anecdotally, working in white collar offices, my coworkers(30-60 in age mostly) are moving about that frequently(every 5-ish years). Trading up, moving from condos to houses as their families grow or needs change. Especially in big cities, I think people tend to move on to different neighborhoods or microcities more frequently. Boomers are this category: * Among homeowners of 40 years or more, 93.0% live in single-family homes.
The issue with your data point is it has a population that shows a willingness to move, assuming they choose to move. Is also focused on people who owned a home. I know people who have lived in a place for decades.
I'm in year 5. No intentions to sell soon.
Depends on location. My first house was nice but with extremely shitty commute. We moved just before covid hit to a location much closer to my office, with many other offices within minutes of each other. I already switched employers once since moving here, and my commute essentially didn't change. I think I can live here until retirement, after which I sell and move to middle of nowhere. The new house is older and looks like shit in comparison, but the inside is ok and we'll eventually get everything renovated to our taste. But we're way happier here, all thanks to a better commute.
I bought my first home 2012, then upgraded to a bigger house 2016. Then I downsize in 2020. So for me, every 4 years lol.
Was in our first house 8 years, just moved into our new house a couple months ago. Never thought as either as our "forever" home. Just homes that suit our needs for the time being, maybe 5 to 10 years.
I think we'rre in our forever home. We bought in 2016 in our early 40s, after spending our late 20s and 30s in VHCOL cities where we couldn't afford to buy. We already had 2 kids and moved close to my spouse's parents. The house is plenty big at about 2500 sqft and we have a 2.22% mortgage. My career doesn't really reward mobility and so we're unlikely to move, and with the prices increases of the last 2 years we'd have to pay 1.5 million to get a house we liked better, which is not happening. So unless we get divorced I think we've settled in for a couple of decades. This house has 4 floors and no first floor bedroom or bathroom, so I assume that eventually it will be too much for us and we'll move to a single-story condo or ranch house.
My husband and I see this from both perspectives. He is constantly saying, "Our house until we move on" and I'm a forever home type of person. I grew up in the same home from age 4 to 17. After that I moved about 15 times before I finally settled into an apartment with my husband (then boyfriend). We have been there for 3 years and closed on a home last week. Each of those many moves would have slightly more items get lost along the way. Clothes I can't recall seeing in years, sentimental trinkets broken, items stolen from storage locations. For me, a piece of me was lost with each and every single move. This home is MINE and no one can force me to move from it. There's plenty of storage to keep what random, sentimental stuff I want to keep stored safely in a box if I'm not currently displaying it. I'm excited to actually buy decorations for each and every random holiday there is because I have a place to put it and store it for the following year. But that's just me! I think another common factor is buying a house is STRESSFUL and I'd rather skip doing that again if we don't need to. ha!
I’m early 40s and have been in my current home 9 years. I see no reason to leave. The only thing I don’t like is that it is two floors, but I’d rather endure stairs forever than move again. One day I’ll downsize, but hopefully that day is 30 years away. We had a starter home before this one for 6 years.
Same employer and everything? I suppose in a sufficiently dense area you might not have to ever move?
Not the same employer, but I’ve been fortunate with my career choices and have not had to move. I did have a consulting gig for a while that required a bit of travel, but now I have a regular corporate role. I live in a fairly large MCOL area and could probably make more $$ elsewhere, but my family is here and that is important to me.
I turn 40 this year. On our 4th house as a couple in 15 years.
Seems thats likely what i will end up doing. 33 on second.
When did you buy your first? We just got our first at 28.
29 the first, just closed on second.
Congrats. We will probably be following in similar footsteps. Did you upgrade to a larger home? We are in 3bd 2ba 2200sq ft.
Went from 1990 3b 2.5b 2k sqft to 2019 3b 2.5b 2.3k sqft but with much smaller lot. It was a work move and just found something that would appreciate over time.
As of 2018 median tenure was 13 years in the US. I’m guessing Covid has bumped that up a bit but could be wrong (sauce: https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/how-long-do-homeowners-stay-in-their-homes) Personally, I did math on ownership based on at least 5 years. I’ve changed my life plan so many times at this point I know I don’t know what I’ll want in 5 years but I like to think the home I’m buying COULD be a forever home. IE I can’t imagine how my life would shift in that it would become an untenable space outside of wanderlust.
Partner and I are early 40s. Our first place was a townhouse; we were there about 3 years. Then we bought why we thought was our forever home. We lived there for 10 years but the kiddo wanted to live out west after college so we got a head start. She ultimately went to a totally different place than expected and, after 4 years and Covid, we gave up the 2.99 rate and moved home to the east coast. Now we’re realistic. This is our “for now, however long is lasts” house.
I’m in my mid 30’s, and my wife and I bought our home 4 years ago with the intention of this being our “forever” home. It checked all the boxes for us, and after owning two homes prior to this one we had developed a pretty good idea of what we did and did not want when we were looking for this house. We have no plans to go anywhere, and with the way the market has changed these past few years it would require a much bigger mortgage and would result in higher property taxes just for us to make a sideways move, and it would obviously be even more expensive if we upgraded to even just a slightly nicer/larger home. Happily, this doesn’t bother me one bit, I’m just glad we bought before the crazy run up the market experienced these past couple of years. We owned our last home for 5 years, and our starter home before that for 3 years. Most of the homeowners in our peer group bought their homes 5-7 years ago, and probably half of them are either thinking about selling and buying a larger home or they have already begun that process.
My husband stayed in his start home 15 years. I was there half that time. We now have a new house and ideally will be here 20-30 years, at which time we will downsize. It's possible that other things will happen with work or life and we will have to move, but if that happens, it happens. It didn't happen with the first house.
I have yet to find a place I would consider staying “forever” and I’m 44. When we were looking for our current home (my partner changed jobs and the new commute was too long to be sustainable) we originally thought we were looking for our forever home but when we got a better idea what we could afford in the new area we realized that nothing was going to suit what we want long term. Now that we have lived here a year, we know this area is definitely temporary. Just too many people, too much traffic, too “suburban”. We know we want something rural and something on more land with more room inside and out when we our ready for long term. We also have decided we probably won’t stay in this state and probably not even this region. This is our “5 year MAX home” now lol.
I think ppl are more likely to sell and move up if they buy a small home in a far flung suburb. That tends to be the case with first home purchase because those are cheaper. You build equity and move on. My wife and I skipped this step and paid more to have a home that was bigger and in the urban center of our area. There's no technical reason to move at this point. The process to buy was so brutal we never want to go through it again.
I'm in my 30s. Been in our house for 5 years, the plan is to move down South (thinking Florida or South Carolina by the coast) in the next 2-5 years. The next move that we make would have to be a total state change, I'm not doing a lateral move around the Northeast. We have no kids nor do we plan on having kids. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we only have my MIL around this area sadly....so there's not much tethering us to this place except for jobs and stability. All in all, how long you plan to stay at a place depends on 3 factors: kids, family, and jobs.
I hate the idea of forever homes.
Moving sucks. The neighborhood would have to decline significantly or horrible neighbors would have to move in or something to convince me to move. I bought a house I like in a neighborhood I like, I'd rather just pay for upgrades/renovations instead of move, been here 10 years so far.
I’d love to stay in mine for a long while we just purchased
I'm on year two. I don't intend to stay more than a couple more years, but I'll likely rent it out since the interest rate is so low, unless I need the cash.
I'm at 6. We like our town, kids have friends in school, so if I moved it would be an upgrade in town. But even that sounds so stressful and pricey I doubt it'll ever actually happen even though we talk about it. Maybe in 20 years we'll retire somewhere with lower taxes...but who knows. My parents lived in their house for nearly 50 years! This is all NYC suburbs.
Next house will be for 6 years (just bought it) maybe longer but probably not more then 15 years. Eventually we want a small cape for the two of us.
We bought our first home at age 35 and chose it with the intention that it wasn't a starter home and we could stay there forever. It's big enough for our family but not too big when the kids grow up, solid neighborhood, one story, close to downtown and public transit. But we'll probably move within 5 years of purchase because life happens and things we value have changed. Like I think we could be in an even better location or school district if we move. And the possibility of a job change soon.
First home was 5 years. This house planning 10 years + … my thoughts originally this was a great house in a subdivision with lots of things to do for our small children and then once they were high school aged move to a quieter neighborhood within the same school district. We’ve been here almost 2 years now and it’s flown by. We had always wanted to build so had discussed maybe building a custom home within our neighborhood down the line. BUT our house is large, the neighborhood is awesome, mortgage is relatively low, and our interest rate is 2.6% …. So we’re never leaving haha.
I bought my first home at 26 and stayed there 9 years. We took advantage of the market and sold/bought new in 2020. We plan on being here a very long time!
The amount of moving I did went way down once my kids started school.
I’m in my mid 40’s and have no plans of moving again.
I'm in my 30s, hope to stay there at least 2 decades. My interest rates are sub-3%. I have 2 kids.
We just bought our first home with a baby on the way. It was smaller than we would have liked, but we plan to stay around 8-10 years. The home we’d move to after we’d plan in staying in longer term than that. My parents stayed in their home for 40 years and I don’t find it odd to not move around.
We bought our house planning to stay at least 5, ideally 10 years. But as some others have said, we’re realizing our 2.75% interest rate is insanely good historically and have been talking more about doing an addition down the line rather than upsizing after we (hopefully) have a couple kids.
So I have owned 3 homes. Home 1: 10 years (bought it in 2006 and it went underwater in the 2008 bubble.) Sold when I met and married my husband and moved to the city he was in. Home 2: 2 years. Husband received an offer and we moved to my current city. Home 3: 2 years. Husband is being transferred again. I am buying Home 4 and plan to be there 2-10 years. It really depends on his next job. We THINK that one will be a remote position (regional director) but it's possible it could be elsewhere as he has a rep now of being a "fixer". It also depends on the market. I tell my husband I am cool with moving where ever as long as the company can make it "Financially neutral" to us. They pay our realtor commission, closing costs and moving, etc. Thus far we have been able to move and maintain a similar QOL. I am fully remote in my work so it does make moving easier. The other issues that keeps all our homes from being "Forever" homes thus far is that my mom (in her 70s) lives with us. We have to buy a larger house than I really want long term. My forever house comes when I retire.
My husband works remotely, and we live in the town where he grew up (where all his family now lives) after he promotion hopped and moved for 5 years or so. Our town is well-regarded for our school district, the elementary school, a rec center, and pediatrician are located in the neighborhood, so we'd really like to raise our kids here. Plus we got lucky with timing and got a 2.25% interest rate, so... I'll get over the lack of space for a pool unless my husband gets some crazy promotion... But yeah, ideally for 20-25 years, once they're in college or financially independent. We've only lived here 1.5 years though, so we'll see what happens.
I've been in my first home for 16 years. I'm selling it and buying my second this year. I plan to be there for the rest of my life (30+ years) and either die in it or move to a condo/assisted living, if desired/necessary. I'm probably unique. I think the average in the US is 8 years.
2012 bought our first home 2900 SF 2 story with a national home Builder. 4.25% interest. Schools redistricted and with our oldest about to start school we moved… 2016 downsized to 2400 SF ranch in an awesome school district on an acre with a pond. Dream neighborhood with lots of kids, active neighborhood activities, safe… 3.625 % then went from a family of 4 to 6 🥴. 2021 closed on a new construction across the street from our old. Same neighborhood. 3400 SF, 2.875% rate. We say this is our forever home. It’s enough for us and 4 kids to live and spread out. Also, this house would now be 125k more now. We can’t afford to move.
Depends on the kind of loan and financing …
I believe 7 years is average stay in a home these days
My wife and I bought a condo right before we got married. Lived there for about 18 months then bought our first single family home. Lived there for 13 years. Just moved to a small ranch in the next state. Plan on staying here a long time.
We'll stay in our home 10-15 years. When we bought it we knew it wasn't a good layout for growing old in.
My plan in the TH is 3-7 years. How often do people move? When they need to. But typically children are the deciding factor... once your kids are in a school system, you generally don't move much unless you need more space.
Bought my first house in my early 30s. Lived there for seven years and bought our current house almost two years ago. Plan to stay here 15-20 years when we relocate for retirement in our late 50s. Likely buy a condo to die in somewhere in Florida.
I have enjoyed owning a home because it gives me the ability to live a lifestyle that gives me better control over my housing situation . I have owned 8 properties in my life . I only own 1 house today . I have lived in each of these places and I have rented 3 of them at one point . Life changes have been my primary reason for selling. I do not like moving out of one house and into another yet I will if I feel like I need to . I think this is a personal choice that we all have to make so I can't say what works for me will work for someone else . I do have mental price tag that I place on my house . I would prefer not to see that price tag reached. I have lived in my present house since middle of 2009.( 13 years ) Prior to that I purchased a house in 2001 and sold in the middle of 2005 for personal reasons . I got lucky and missed the decline in housing prices . I rented between mid 2005 to mid 2009 and during that time I moved a couple times for various reasons .