More Americans prefer to own rather than rent their homes in retirement, according to survey results from Voya Financial.
Voya conducted a survey of 1,000 Americans (from millennials to retirees) to gauge the opinions of Americans on a number of topics related to where and how they want to live in retirement.
Among current retirees in the survey, approximately 8 in 10 (79%) own their home while 18% rent.
Of those who had not yet retired, even more (85%) said they planned to own their home in retirement, while a smaller number (12%) anticipated renting. And, the survey finds, this goal of homeownership in retirement was consistent across all segments of non-retirees regardless of gender and age (men, women, millennials, Gen X and baby boomers all represented between 81% and 87%).
Voya's survey also reveals some deeper insights into the topic of mortgages.
A significant majority of homeowners with an outstanding mortgage were optimistic about paying it off prior to retirement, according to the survey, although the survey results suggest that some of these homeowners may be overly optimistic.
According to the survey, one-third (33%) of non-retirees reported having a mortgage and roughly half in this group (16%) had an outstanding balance of $100,000 or more.
Less than one-in-five (19%) of those non-retirees with a mortgage expect to still have a mortgage in retirement. However, among current retirees, more than one-quarter (26%) still have an outstanding mortgage balance and a significant percent of this group (16%) still had a balance of $50,000 or more.
"Those heading toward retirement should plan accordingly so they don't overestimate their ability to achieve their goals," the survey states.
The survey also looks at other trends around Americans' concerns with housing in retirement – among them, do Americans prefer to move in retirement or stay in their current location?
Voya's survey noted an interesting trend — Americans are almost evenly divided on whether they move or stay in one location when they retire.
Exactly half (50%) of all respondents said they wanted to move to a more desirable location when they retired, according to the survey. Meanwhile, almost the same amount (49%) thought their current location and lifestyle were ideal.
When looking at those who owned versus rented, those numbers changed quite a bit.
