Should I Downsize My House in St. Louis?

Let’s Start With Why I Think You Should Stay

The decision to downsize isn’t easy to make.

Moving is a pain in the butt.

But that’s actually the smaller problem.

Think about the habits and routines you’ve built around where you live. Where you buy groceries. The route you take to church. Your doctor. Your neighbors. Where you get your hair cut. The restaurants you know. Maybe where your kids and grandkids live.

We’re not just talking about changing houses.

That deserves more consideration than whether you’d like having one less bedroom and a smaller yard.

My clients Roy and Karen left their home of 44 years in South City for a ranch in Fenton, about 1.5 miles from their grandson. The house wasn’t much smaller. The routine around it was what changed. Read how they made the move →

Your Current House Has Some Big Advantages

You’ve already figured this house out.

You know which window sticks. You know whether the basement gets a little damp during a really heavy rain. You know the furnace is getting older. You know which neighbor will grab your trash cans if you’re out of town.

That familiarity has value.

And financially, your current house may have an advantage that’s difficult to replace.

Maybe it’s paid off. Maybe you bought it long enough ago that your mortgage payment is tiny compared with what housing costs today.

Selling a $400,000 house and buying a $300,000 house sounds like downsizing.

But that doesn’t automatically mean your life gets $100,000 cheaper.

There are selling costs. Moving costs. The next house may need work. A villa or condo may have monthly fees. Your taxes and insurance change. And you’re buying the replacement at today’s prices.

Can You Fix the Problem Without Moving?

This might be the most important question.

Why are you thinking about downsizing in the first place?

Those are very different problems. And not all of them require selling.

If the yard is the problem, paying someone to maintain it might be considerably cheaper than moving. If maintenance is becoming overwhelming, compare the cost of hiring help with the cost of replacing the house.

Even spending money modifying the house can make sense if it allows you to comfortably stay somewhere you already love.

But there’s another side to this. At some point, you can spend so much time, money and energy trying to make the house work that you’re really just avoiding the bigger question.

That’s when downsizing deserves a serious look.

What Would Downsizing Actually Solve?

If you’re going to turn your daily life upside down, the move should solve something.

Maybe you’re tired of spending Saturdays working on a house you don’t need anymore. Maybe the stairs aren’t impossible yet, but you’re thinking about what they’ll feel like five or ten years from now. Maybe you’re heating, cooling, cleaning and maintaining rooms nobody uses.

Maybe there’s a lot of equity sitting in the house and you’d rather use some of that money for something else.

Or maybe the house is fine. You’re simply ready for something different. That’s a legitimate reason too.

The important thing is knowing what you’re trying to accomplish before you start looking at smaller houses.

A villa might eliminate yard work but add an HOA payment. A condo might eliminate exterior maintenance but give you shared walls and association rules. A smaller ranch might give you one-level living but cost considerably more than you expected. Renting may eliminate most home maintenance, but now you’re renting after decades of owning.

Smaller Doesn’t Automatically Mean Cheaper

You may own a four-bedroom house that you bought decades ago for a fraction of what it’s worth today. Now you’re shopping for a smaller two- or three-bedroom ranch, villa or condo.

It’s smaller. But you’re buying it in today’s market.

Compare the purchase price, property taxes, insurance, HOA or condo fees, utilities, maintenance responsibilities, any work the new place needs, and the cost of actually moving from one house to the other.

Then compare all of that with what it costs to stay where you are.

You might discover that downsizing significantly reduces your monthly expenses and frees up a large amount of equity. Or you might discover you’re considering spending a substantial amount of money to move into a smaller house while only modestly reducing your monthly expenses.

Stay vs. Downsize Calculator

This isn’t designed to tell you what to do. It puts the two housing choices next to each other so you can see whether moving actually changes your finances enough to matter to you.

What Would You Actually Keep After Selling?

If your house is worth $400,000, it’s tempting to think: I have $400,000 to buy the next place.

Probably not.

Start with what the house could realistically sell for in its current condition. Then subtract your remaining mortgage balance, selling expenses, any repairs or preparation you decide to complete, and moving expenses.

What’s left is much closer to the amount of equity you actually have available for whatever comes next.

And that’s the number you should compare with your replacement housing—not the Zestimate, not what your neighbor’s remodeled house sold for, and not the number you hope the house is worth.

What Are You Actually Going to Buy?

This is where I’d stop talking about the idea of downsizing and start looking at real housing.

If you sold your house tomorrow, what would you actually want next?

A ranch? A villa? A condo? A smaller single-family home? An apartment? Something closer to your kids?

Then look at what those options really cost in the parts of St. Louis you would actually consider living in.

You may want to stay close to the community you know. You may want to move closer to family. Or this may be the first time in decades that you can choose a location based almost entirely on what you want your next chapter to look like.

Don’t compare your current house with an imaginary smaller house.

Compare it with something you could realistically buy or rent.

Read Where Should I Move When Downsizing in St. Louis? →

And Then There’s the Actual Move

There’s a reason “moving is a pain in the butt” showed up near the top of this guide.

If you’ve lived in the same house for decades, you’re not packing a two-bedroom apartment.

You may have furniture your kids don’t want, boxes you haven’t opened in 15 years, tools, holiday decorations, family photographs, paperwork, dishes, collections and an entire basement or garage full of things that accumulated one perfectly reasonable purchase at a time.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t move.

It means the work of downsizing your belongings belongs in the decision too.

Give yourself permission to treat this as a process instead of a weekend project. Decide what moves with you, what family actually wants, what can be sold or donated, and what simply needs to go.

The house is one transaction. Your life inside it is the bigger project.

Don’t Remodel Just Because You’re Selling

If you decide downsizing makes sense, the next mistake is easy to make: assuming the house now needs to look brand new before anyone will buy it.

It doesn’t.

A dated house and a defective house are not the same thing.

Before spending heavily, separate what is broken from what may materially affect a buyer’s decision from what is simply older than today’s design trends.

Sometimes repairs make economic sense. Sometimes a smaller improvement does more than a major renovation. And sometimes the strongest net result comes from selling the house in its current condition and letting the next owner decide what they want to change.

The goal is not the highest possible sale price at any cost. The goal is understanding which path gives you the strongest reasonable net outcome for the amount of time, money and hassle you’re willing to take on.

So, Should You Downsize?

I wouldn’t decide because your friends did it. I wouldn’t decide because somebody told you a person your age shouldn’t have that much house. And I definitely wouldn’t decide because someone who makes money when you move tells you how easy it will be.

Start with staying.

What do you like about your current life? What does the house cost you? What problems are you actually trying to solve? Could you solve them without moving?

Then make downsizing prove itself.

Find a realistic replacement. Run the numbers. Look at what you’d keep after selling. Compare the monthly costs. Think about the routines and people you’d be leaving—and what you’d gain on the other side.

If it doesn’t, staying isn’t failing to downsize.

It may simply be the better decision for you right now.

Return to Longtime St. Louis Homeowner: Should You Stay or Should You Go? →