If You Cant Afford to Retire...Move

According to Warren Bland, PhD, an award-winning author and geographer at Cal State, people have a great option. It's called "equity-take" that is, the difference in cost of comparable housing between your present community and the more affordable one to which you could move. So, if you are willing to make that move, you can pocket a good chunk of money instead of delaying your retirement.

Consider the person hailing from Buffalo, NY, where the average upper middle class home sells for around $250,000. In Thomasville, Georgia, one of the most desirable retirement places in the Atlantic Southeast, many attractive single-family residences in beautiful neighborhoods are selling for around $140,000. This means that you could net about $100,000 (assuming your mortgage is paid off) by relocating from snowy Buffalo to sunny southern Georgia, and increase your annual net income by $5,000 by investing in, for example, tax-free municipal bonds at 5 % annual interest.

People living in expensive metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Chicago and Toronto are in an even better position to use "equity take" to their advantage. The average price of upper middle class housing exceeds $1million in Manhattan, $700,000 in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area, and is around $500,000 in Boston and Toronto. In contrast, home prices in many highly desirable cities and towns, suitable for retirement and located in all parts of the country, are more likely to be in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Even a relocation from Manhattan to Boca Raton, Florida (one of Bland's "top ten" retirement picks), could leave you with an equity-take of $500,000. Investing that windfall in tax-free municipal bonds at 5 % annual interest, will increase your annual income by $25,000. As Bland says, "You can buy a lot of wine, gourmet food and entertainment with that kind of money"!

Barbara Kimmel is an award-winning book publisher, publishing consultant and publicist. She is the publisher of Warren Bland's book, Retire in Style 60 Outstanding Places Across the USA and Canada. Books are available through all major bookstores, amazon.com or http://www.nextdecade.com

MORE RESOURCES:

ERA Pacesetter closes real estate business - Bizjournals.com

Learn to Profit from Real Estate - Even in Tough Markets - MarketWatch

Tokyo Replaces Shanghai as Best Asian City to Buy Real Estate - Bloomberg

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Nokomis Real Estate Ventures LLC files bankruptcy petition - Bizjournals.com

Citigroup Said to Cut Most of Asia Real Estate Team After Slump - Bloomberg

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Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc. Announces ... - MarketWatch

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UPDATE 2-Sibir market value halves on real estate buy - Forbes

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Icahn Sues Real Estate Company Over Debt - New York Times

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-0fd=Rurl=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/business/03realogy.html%3Fref%3Dbusinesscid=1276968847ei=NQ03SeCzJ4Gi9gTjxrCtDwusg=AFQjCNEjSyi4EIiwFLdJ-LLwB27S4fik6gIcahn Sues bReal Estate/b Company Over Debt/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fNew York Times,nbsp;United Statesnbsp;-/font nobr22 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Mr. Icahn’s investment firm filed a lawsuit last Wednesday against a breal estate/b company controlled by Leon D. Black, a prominent Wall Street buyout b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-1fd=Rurl=http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4B27IQ20081203cid=1276968847ei=NQ03SeCzJ4Gi9gTjxrCtDwusg=AFQjCNFIYwMkva6yKquM2KXVPcVEQEeuwAIcahn sues Realogy over debt deal/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrReuters/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1276968847hl=ennobrall 21 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Whitehall Funds Lose Their Luster - Wall Street Journal

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-0fd=Rurl=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826598899374457.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsjcid=1277094278ei=NQ03SeCzJ4Gi9gTjxrCtDwusg=AFQjCNGhr7QIbKT9Ua6UEwfiG18nVi8e7QWhitehall Funds Lose Their Luster/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fWall Street Journalnbsp;-/font nobr17 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By ANTON TROIANOVSKI and LINGLING WEI Goldman Sachs Group Inc.#39;s Whitehall family of breal-estate/b funds is struggling with weak performance and potentially b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-1fd=Rurl=http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN0351371720081203cid=1277094278ei=NQ03SeCzJ4Gi9gTjxrCtDwusg=AFQjCNEWgKLxZM1rZcMP4XmK2C0CnKwPEwGoldman Whitehall head warned of firm#39;s exposure/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrReuters/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-2fd=Rurl=http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSBNG24933320081203cid=1277094278ei=NQ03SeCzJ4Gi9gTjxrCtDwusg=AFQjCNGyG5rraRkYEAwd_8UUS0PSMekpgwGoldman Whitehall funds hit by property slump-WSJ/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrReuters/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1277094278hl=ennobrall 12 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Freedom Interactive Launches New Real Estate Vertical - Destin Log and Walton Log

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