Imagine Carol, a 67-year-old retired teacher in suburban Ohio. She owns a four-bedroom home outright with no mortgage, but two of those bedrooms have been empty since her kids left a decade ago.
The property taxes keep climbing, the roof needs replacing soon and she recently turned down a trip to see her grandchildren because a plumber’s bill wiped out her travel fund for the month.
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She knows it’s time to downsize. What she can’t decide is whether to buy something smaller or, for the first time in 40 years, rent.
It’s a question more older Americans are wrestling with than you might expect.
CNBC notes research (1) from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University that says more than seven million adults aged 65 and older — roughly 20% of older households — currently rent rather than own. And Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies confirms (2) the older adult household population has grown 16% since 2019, with older adults now leading 28% of all U.S. households — a share that will keep climbing as boomers age.
The honest case for renting
The appeal to rent starts with math. According to HomeGuide (3), financial experts recommend saving 1–4% of a home’s value annually for maintenance and repairs — meaning a $400,000 home could cost between $4,000 and $16,000 a year just to maintain, before any major system failures.
Costs for things like roofs, HVAC replacements or plumbing emergencies don’t stop accumulating because you’ve retired.
“Renting often offers more amenities, less maintenance, more accessibility,” Jennifer Molinsky, director of the housing and aging society program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies, told CNBC (1).
Then there’s the liquidity argument.
A home worth $400,000 is $400,000 that isn’t generating income while you live in it. If Carol sells and invests those proceeds in a diversified portfolio, that capital can start working — potentially producing income, covering rent and still preserving her estate.
For retirees trying to stretch fixed income over an unpredictable lifespan, that flexibility has real value.
Renting also offers something harder to quantify: the ability to move. Whether it’s relocating closer to family, accessing better health care or simply wanting a warmer winter, lease-based living makes transitions far less complicated than selling a property.
The risks renters face
None of this means renting is automatically the right answer, and being clear about the downsides matters. The biggest con is rent increases. Unlike a paid-off mortgage, rent is a variable expense that rises with the market and never goes away.
“As a retired renter, you are faced each month with a housing expense for the rest of your life. It’s an expense that is not fixed, it is variable by market trends,” certified financial planner and CEO and President of The Real Wealth Coterie, Lazetta Rainey Braxton, told CNBC (1).
That vulnerability is especially sharp on a fixed income.
According to the JCHS (2), homeowners aged 65 and older accounted for 7.9 million of the nation’s 20 million cost-burdened homeowners in 2023 — and those on fixed incomes face even steeper exposure to rising costs, with the cost-burden rate for older homeowners climbing from 24.2% in 2019 to 27.6% in 2023. Renters in this age group face the same pressures with even less recourse.
There’s also no equity accumulation, no hedge against rising property values in your area and less control over your living space. If your landlord decides to sell, your stability depends on their decisions rather than your own.
Read More: About 1 in 5 Americans over 50 has zero retirement savings — here’s the catch-up plan you can actually use
What Carol’s decision actually hinges on
The rent-versus-own question in retirement is ultimately less about real estate philosophy and more about cash flow, health trajectory and how much flexibility matters to you going forward.
If Carol’s health is good and her community ties are strong, buying something smaller, like a low-maintenance condo, for instance, keeps her in the ownership market without the upkeep burden of a large house.
If she expects her circumstances to change, or if she wants her equity to work harder, renting gives her options that ownership doesn’t.
Real Estate Witch’s analysis (4) found that 44% of current homeowners believe it’s actually easier to be a renter — a sentiment that likely resonates differently once you’re on a fixed income than it did in earlier years.
Bottom line: There’s no universally correct answer. But for Carol and millions of Americans facing the same crossroads, it’s worth taking the question seriously, rather than defaulting to ownership simply because it’s familiar and comfortable.
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Article Sources
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CNBC (1); Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (2); HomeGuide (3); Real Estate Witch (4)
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: 44% of homeowners say renting is easier — but for retirees on fixed income, the math isn’t that simple
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
