What I got wrong about buying my forever home at 67 that nearly ruined my finances

There's a particular kind of confidence that comes with being 67. Decades of financial decisions, good and bad, give you the feeling that you've seen enough to know what you're doing.

When I decided to buy what I called my "forever home," I felt certain. The kids were grown, retirement was settled, and this was supposed to be the final, satisfying chapter in a story about building something lasting.

I was wrong in more ways than I had time to count. Not catastrophically wrong, not all at once, but wrong in the slow, grinding way that erodes a retirement budget until you're suddenly choosing between a plumber and a prescription.

What follows is a candid account of the assumptions I made, the numbers I didn't run, and the costs I never saw coming.

I Assumed My Budget Was More Stable Than It Actually Was

Retirement income feels solid until it isn't. Most new retirees see a meaningful decrease in income compared to their pre-retirement earnings, and much of financial life changes as you transition from a steady paycheck to a mix of fixed and variable income.

I had Social Security, a modest pension, and some investment income, and I convinced myself that added up to stability. It didn't, not in the way a working salary provides a cushion against the unexpected.

The high cost of buying a home is particularly problematic for retirees living on a fixed income, and many of the homebuying issues retirees face are similar to those of younger buyers, including higher interest rates that can limit the size of the mortgage or the home being purchased. What I failed to grasp is that retirement income doesn't grow when costs do.

Many retirees are on fixed incomes without the ability to earn additional income, which means older buyers need to be fully aware of what they can and can't afford and the associated ongoing expenses of owning a home.

I Underestimated the True Weight of Carrying a Mortgage in Retirement

According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies' 2023 report, Housing America's Older Adults, roughly four in ten homeowners between the ages of 65 and 79 carried mortgage debt in 2022, compared to just about one quarter in 1989. Among homeowners aged 80 and older, more than three in ten had a mortgage in 2022, a dramatic increase from only about three percent in 1989.

I took some comfort in knowing I wasn't alone. That was a mistake.

Being in good company doesn't make a financial strain any less real. Research has found that households that carry the most housing debt have the least in savings, while older people struggling to pay a mortgage face difficult choices, including delaying retirement entirely.

The most leveraged households retire a full year later than those without a mortgage payment. I had already retired, so delaying wasn't an option.

Instead, I found myself cutting back on things I had genuinely looked forward to.

I Didn't Fully Grasp How High Interest Rates Would Squeeze a Fixed Income

As of March 2025, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at around 6.6%, roughly double where it stood in March 2020 at 3.3%. I bought into an elevated rate environment and didn't adequately model what that meant month to month over the long run. The monthly payment looked manageable in isolation. The problem was it wasn't in isolation. High interest rates mean higher monthly payments, which can strain a retiree's fixed income, and because retirees typically have less flexibility to handle increased expenses, higher mortgage payments can significantly reduce the amount of disposable income available for other essential expenses such as healthcare, travel, or leisure activities. That last part, the leisure, is what stings. Retirement is supposed to include some enjoyment. A punishing mortgage payment quietly erodes that.

I Treated the Home as an Investment When It Was Really an Expense

While a house is an asset, it is not a liquid asset. Retirees who can no longer afford a mortgage payment may be forced to sell to cash in on the equity and relieve their financial stress.

I thought of the home as a store of value and a legacy for my family. That's partially true, but it misses a critical point: equity sitting in walls and a roof cannot pay a utility bill or fund a medical procedure.

Paying with a lump sum from retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or IRA can trigger serious tax implications, drain liquidity, and reduce flexibility. Once tied up in home equity, those funds are not easily accessible.

I funded a large portion of my down payment this way. The tax bill that followed was not something I had properly anticipated, and the liquidity I lost took years to rebuild.

Property Taxes and Insurance Costs Grew Far Faster Than I Expected

Between 2021 and 2024, the average cost of homeowners insurance rose by more than roughly a quarter. In some states like Illinois, it climbed by more than half.

At the same time, rising home prices and local government spending caused property tax bills to increase by more than 27% since 2019. I had locked in a mortgage payment, but there was no locking in taxes or insurance.

Those numbers simply kept climbing. Property tax increases of between roughly ten and fifteen percent are hitting seniors hard in 2026, with sharp increases reported across the country.

For retirees living on fixed incomes, even a modest increase can strain already tight budgets. Many retirees rely on fixed incomes from Social Security or pensions, which don't always keep pace with rising costs, and unlike working households, they may not have the flexibility to increase income to offset higher taxes.

The House Wasn't Actually Built for Someone My Age

If you're buying in your 40s or 50s, you probably aren't considering a home with easily accessible showers or no stairs. But if you develop mobility issues as you age, a retirement dream home with multiple flights of stairs might start feeling like more of a nightmare.

I loved the layout and the character of the house. I didn't love it as much three years later when a knee problem turned the staircase into a daily obstacle.

Fewer than four percent of homes in the United States offer a no-step entry, single-floor living, and wide enough doors and hallways to accommodate a wheelchair. That statistic is bracing.

Accessibility modifications can range significantly in cost, with stair lifts and elevator lifts alone running anywhere from four thousand to well over thirty thousand dollars. These are not costs that show up in a mortgage pre-approval discussion.

Housing Cost Burdens Are Quietly Affecting a Huge Share of Older Homeowners

According to analysis of the 2024 American Community Survey, roughly one in three households headed by someone aged 65 or older is housing cost burdened, defined as paying more than thirty percent of their income for housing. Of these nearly thirteen million households, close to seven million devote more than half their incomes to housing costs.

I am not alone in this, though that fact is cold comfort when a repair bill arrives. Unaffordable housing leaves little left over each month to pay for necessities like nutritious food and out-of-pocket healthcare costs such as prescription co-payments.

Poorer health outcomes from this kind of material deprivation can increase health-related costs further. Housing cost burdens also lead to insufficient funds for home repairs or accessibility modifications, endangering safety and independence.

I Confused "Forever" With "Flexible"

Buying a home after 60 can hurt you financially. If you plan on moving in five years or less, the expenses of homeownership will cost more than the financial benefits.

You'll also have to sell or rent the home when you want to move, which can incur responsibilities you may not want to shoulder, especially if you're retired and want to travel. I bought a forever home, so I told myself that flexibility didn't matter.

But life at 67 has a way of rewriting those plans. Health changes.

Family circumstances shift. If you're in the market to buy a new primary home after 60, you need to adjust your thinking significantly compared to when you were in your 30s.

The margin for error is much smaller, and it will be harder to recover from a poor financial move. Proper risk management is key.

That last sentence is the one I wish someone had said to me very plainly, very early. The margin for error at 67 is real, and it is narrow.

What I Would Have Done Differently

The decision to buy wasn't entirely wrong. Stability matters, and owning provides a kind of security that renting genuinely cannot.

With a fixed-rate mortgage, your housing payment won't change after you move in, which gives you a consistent monthly housing bill that won't jump because of market fluctuations. That part has actually held up.

The miscalculations were everywhere else, in the taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, the accessibility shortfalls, and the liquidity I surrendered. Older buyers should think carefully before purchasing a home they can't sustain, because the goal is to avoid a situation where you purchase a home and cannot afford basic necessities or the things that make retirement enjoyable, like travel, spending time with family, and personal hobbies.

A thorough, honest budget that accounts for every cost over a ten-year horizon, not just the mortgage payment, is the minimum starting point. I ran the numbers I wanted to see rather than the ones I needed to see, and that gap cost me more than I like to admit.