Keeping the House You Call Home.
Ways to stay in your home as you get older: what homeowners insurance, property taxes, utilities, repairs, care, and everyday life cost, what you get for them, where to find help paying less, and where sharing your home can help.
Staying Home, Not Alone
2 guides
Staying in the home you choose has a price. It is not one bill. It is many.
The Price to Stay Home: Questions Worth Asking
The costs of keeping a home and a life in it, named in one place, with plain questions for older adults and families to work through one cost at a time.
Help is optional and agreed in advance. It does not replace care, and it does not include risky work.
You Don't Have to Carry It Alone
What another person in the home, or a helpful family member, friend, or neighbor, can do for an older homeowner, what that help is worth, and where its limits are.
Homeowners Insurance
4 guides
The premium does not buy repairs or upkeep. It buys protection from a loss too large to pay out of savings.
What Homeowners Insurance Is, and What You Get for It
What a standard homeowners policy covers and leaves out, who requires it, and what you get for the premium, explained in plain words for older homeowners.
So a bill can rise even with no claims and no change to the house.
Why Your Home Insurance Premium Went Up
Home insurance premiums rose fast in recent years. Here is how a premium is set, what pushed prices up, and why it can feel heavier on a fixed income.
Not every change on a renewal shows up in the price.
Reading Your Renewal: When More of the Risk Moves to You
Some renewal changes shift the cost of a future claim to you. Here is how to spot roof terms, percentage deductibles, and dropped coverage, and who can help.
Going without saves the premium and risks the whole house.
Lowering Your Premium Without Losing Protection
Discounts to ask for by name, grants for stronger roofs, and what to do if no company will insure your home, without giving up the coverage that protects it.
Taxes and Utilities
2 guides
You owe it whether or not you have a mortgage.
Property Taxes: What You Pay, What You Get, and How to Pay Less
How property taxes are set, what they pay for, and the exemptions, freezes, credits, deferrals, and appeals that can help older homeowners pay less.
Steady heat, cooling, light, clean water, and a working phone are more than comforts.
Utilities: Keeping the Lights On and the House Warm for Less
How utility bills are set and the programs, discounts, and protections that can help older homeowners keep the heat, lights, water, and phone on for less.
Repairs and Updates
3 guides
Steady maintenance keeps repairs smaller and less frequent.
Repairs That Keep Your Home Safe and Comfortable
The roof, heat, plumbing, wiring, and steps keep a home livable. Here is what drives repair costs, what upkeep protects, and where to find help.
A home does not need to be ready to sell to be a good home to live in.
Living in It or Selling It: Two Different Lists
Repairs that keep a home safe to live in and updates that appeal to buyers are two different lists. Here is how to tell them apart and spend on what matters to you.
The right changes let you keep doing things your own way, in your own home.
Updates That Make Living on Your Own Easier
A no-step entry, a first-floor bathroom, a stair lift, or better lighting can make living on your own easier. Here is what they cost and who can help you choose.
Care at Home
5 guides
For many older adults, a few hours of help a week is what makes staying home work.
Help at Home: What It Is and Who Pays
Homemakers, companions, and personal care aides can help an older adult stay home. Here is what that help is, what it costs, and who may help pay.
Medicare's home health benefit can bring skilled care into your home so you can recover where you live.
Home Health Care: What Medicare Covers at Home
Medicare can pay for nursing and therapy at home when leaving home is hard for you. Here is who qualifies, what is covered, how people pay privately for more, and how hospital at home differs.
When the home is ready ahead of time, a stay at home does not turn adult children into round-the-clock nurses.
Hospital at Home: What Your Medicare Plan Covers and How to Get Your Home Ready
Some hospitals now treat patients at home. Here is how Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage handle it, what to ask at open enrollment, and how to get your home ready.
Help works best when it comes quickly, and an alarm only helps if it is used.
Getting Help Fast: Falls, Emergencies, and Alert Systems
A fall is more dangerous when no one knows. Here is how medical alert systems work, what they cost, free fall prevention classes, and a simple emergency plan.
Each piece is small. Together they can be the difference between keeping a job and leaving one.
Family Caregivers: Sharing the Load
What family caregiving costs the caregiver in time, money, and work, and the programs and shared help that can keep a parent at home and a caregiver working.
Everyday Life
3 guides
Reliable rides help keep doctor visits, groceries, worship, and friendships in reach. Those are the things that make staying home work.
Getting Around When You Stop Driving
When the car keys go, appointments, groceries, and friends still matter. Here is what rides cost, what programs lower the cost, and where to find them.
Food is one of the quiet foundations of staying home.
Food and Meals: Eating Well at Home on a Budget
Good food helps you stay strong at home. Here is what groceries cost, what SNAP and meal programs offer older adults, and how to find them where you live.
Living alone is not the same as being lonely, and staying home works best when home is connected to people.
Staying Connected at Home
Living alone is not the same as being lonely. Here are low-cost ways to stay connected at home, from a senior center to phone calls to help with technology.