Most people who sell a house because of money are not forced out. Nobody forecloses. Nobody knocks on the door. The insurance renewal comes in higher again, the heating bill climbs, the income stays where it was, and one day selling starts to feel like the sensible thing. Take the money, find somewhere cheaper, stop worrying. Before you do, it is worth knowing how long that money usually lasts.
You are not the only one doing this math
We looked at every household in the country headed by someone 62 or older who owns their home, and compared their income with the Elder Index, which measures what an older adult needs each month for housing, food, transportation, health care and other basics in their state. About four in ten either cannot cover those basic costs or are only just covering them.
Many of them own the house outright. If you have paid off your mortgage and still feel squeezed, that is not a sign you did something wrong. Nearly six in ten older homeowners who cannot cover their basic costs have no mortgage at all. The pressure comes from somewhere else.
Mostly it comes from the bills that come with a house. Between 2018 and 2024, after inflation, the cost of insuring a home rose about a quarter for older homeowners, and in Oregon about 30 percent. Property tax, the bill everyone blames, rose about 3 percent. For older homeowners with incomes under $50,000, income after inflation went down.
Each year, about 120,000 older homeowners move because of that kind of pressure. Most sell.
The sum to do before you list
It takes a pencil and about ten minutes.
One. Write down what the house would sell for. Take off about 8 percent for selling costs, and anything you still owe on it. That is what you would actually have.
Two. Write down how much you come up short each year once you have moved, after rent or the new home's costs. Be honest about it.
Three. Divide the first number by the second. That is how many years the money lasts.
Then set that number beside your age, and beside how long you might reasonably live. That is the whole question.
What the numbers usually show
We ran that sum for every older homeowner in the country whose income does not cover their basic costs, using what their house would sell for and how long people their age can expect to live.
If you sell and rent, the money lasts the rest of their expected lifetime for about a third. For almost six in ten, it runs out. The typical household runs through it in under six years, around age 78.
If you sell and buy somewhere cheaper, about four in ten cannot do it at all without taking on new debt, because the cheaper place is not cheap enough. For many of the rest, the money covers the gap for three or four years.
If you sell to move into subsidized housing, there is a rule most people have never heard of. From January 2027, housing agencies must turn away anyone with more than $105,574 in savings, and the money from selling your house counts. For about two-thirds of older homeowners in this situation, a sale would leave them over that limit. They would have to rent at market rate and spend it down first, which takes years.
None of this means selling is wrong. Sometimes it is exactly right. The stairs, the distance from your children, a house that has become too much to look after. And for about a third of people, the sale really does solve it. But for many, selling does not end the money problem. It moves it a few years down the road, to an age when there are fewer options and the house is gone.
Now price the other option
There is one option most people never put numbers on: staying, and renting out a room.
We ran that sum too. About 12 million older homeowners who are short each month have a spare bedroom. With one room rented at an affordable rent, which averages about $500 a month across the country, about 3.1 million of them could cover their basic costs and stay. At a market rent, which averages closer to $700 and runs higher in many cities, about 4.2 million.
Three things are different about this option.
- It does not run out. The rent keeps coming for as long as the room is shared. That is the difference between an answer and a delay.
- You keep the house. The equity stays yours, and it stays in reserve for later, including if you ever need to pay for care.
- You can change your mind. A sale is final. Sharing a room is one agreement, usually a year at a time.
And where one room is not quite enough, there is often other help: property tax relief, help with utility bills and repairs, and benefits that lower everyday costs. Staying Home lists what is available in your state.
What sharing asks of you
The honest worries are safety, privacy and ending up with the wrong person. You decide who moves in. Every member is identity-verified, background checks run both ways, and you get to know someone through messages and video before you ever share an address. There is a written agreement, made for shared homes, that says how the house will work and how either of you can end it. The whole process usually takes about three months.
One thing to be clear on. The person renting your room is not a caregiver. You can agree on household help, like yard work or groceries, if you both write it down. Personal care should come from a trained, paid caregiver. The two work well side by side.
Before you call an agent
Do the sum. Ten minutes, a pencil, and the three steps above.
Find your state. Staying Home shows what is happening to older homeowners where you live, and the help available there.
Price the room. Find out what one bedroom in your house is worth where you live. Then decide with both numbers in front of you.
Read next
If You Sell, Where Are You Going? is about the other half of the decision: what is actually waiting on the other side of a sale.
The Value of a Match puts numbers on what one shared room is worth.
Sources
- Who is at risk, mortgage status, cost changes and yearly moves: HomeShare Oregon, Staying Home, 2026, from the American Community Survey 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample, 2022 to 2024, measured against the Elder Index (Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2025). The moves figure is a central estimate within a range of about 61,000 to 207,000 a year.
- What a sale buys: Staying Home, modeled for older homeowners whose income is below the Elder Index. Selling costs of 8 percent of value; rent at the Elder Index renter budget; a cheaper home at 62 percent of current value; remaining life expectancy from CDC life tables, 2023. Modeled, not observed. Figures are medians and shares, not a forecast for any one household.
- Asset limit: HUD, 24 CFR 5.618, and HUD Notices PIH 2026-15 and H 2025-07. Applies to public housing, housing vouchers and project-based Section 8, from 1 January 2027. Section 202 housing funded through a Project Rental Assistance Contract is outside the limit.
- Staying and sharing: Staying Home. The affordable rent is HUD's FY2026 Low HOME Rent and the market rent its Fair Market Rent, each divided by the home's bedrooms; the monthly figures are averages across at-risk homes with a spare room.