No!! But one stories will typically be older or more expensive (if new)- so you have to buy what you can afford.
I have a one story - and it’s the best thing ever!! They’re also quickest in the neighborhood to sell.
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I downsized a few years ago and am looking to buy something small. The market here in MA has sparse offerings. I have given up a few good options because of stairs and no downstairs bathroom. I am almost 73 and can walk several miles, but you never know.
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Now I’m thinking about Natasha Lyonne in Russian Doll … !
Seriously though, I have twisted my ankle going down my mom’s stairs, and I don’t like carrying heavy objects up and down them. And I am not even 60 yet. I know what you mean about the caution.
But my mom says she wouldn’t change a thing. She likes her stairs.
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Nope. Currently dealing with an aging parent who broke an ankle. It is not the same as a teen breaking an ankle.
The incident triggered a plan to sell the house with stairs and move.
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I sense that maybe @Hoggirl asked because they have some hesitation? Maybe not.
I hear those of you that would buy in a heartbeat with little or no hesitation. But also don’t think that people who have a “one floor living home” are sitting in it waiting to die. Lol!
And they can be “to die for” (no pun intended!) homes as well!
You can paint a hundred scenarios. But those of you who say if something happens, just sell, downsize and buy something else when needed. Well, if one of you is incapacitated and things changed on a dime…is the remaining spouse going to want to have the bandwidth to handle all those things? Are there other family members to help?
As well as you can see staying in your 3 floors of home cause you love it and are healthy, others can also say “I’m healthy but we ARE moving and if we are moving, let’s plan ahead and skip that possible “in a panic moving” step.
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The value of real estate goes up and down. If you bought in 2007 and had to sell in 2010 you would have lost a lot of money. Selling for a profit, even for the savviest investor, is not guaranteed.
I would not buy a two-story home that did not have a full bathroom on each level. I love our ranch, despite never having gotten to live in the big old rambling two-story with a huge porch of my dreams. There is nothing about this house that will keep us from living here until we die, assuming there is care we can even hire by the time we need it.
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I recently read Peter Attia’s Outlive—about the science of living well and living longer. One stat that stood out is that older people who suffer a fall often decline precipitously in health. It’s something like… if you are over 65 and you fall and break your hip, your chances of being dead in 12 months are 15-30 percent. Having stairs in your house can expose you to fall risks that I just wouldn’t take.
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I don’t agree that not wanting a home with all bedrooms up is living in fear. Nor do I think that climbing stairs to bed is the only way to remain fit. I definitely would not buy a home with all bedrooms up, although I was persuaded to do that at one time, much to my regret.
At 16 I had surgery and was forbidden to climb stairs for at least six weeks. Fortunately, my parents’ home was one level so it was only a problem when I returned to school. Similar procedures, with the same restrictions, followed in my 20s and 30s. Then there was an accident that left me with permanent back pain. What was inconvenient for me as a teenager was a huge problem as a mom.
In my 40s, I had surgery on both feet, and less than a decade later experienced multiple foot fractures. At least by then we had a main floor bedroom with en suite bathroom, but I couldn’t have gotten upstairs to our kids’ rooms or downstairs to the basement if we hadn’t had an elevator.
By the time I suffered a torn meniscus twice in one year, at 65+, we were living in a one level home. Few, if any, of my injuries or surgeries were due to age and none would have been prevented by doing more stair climbing.
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No.
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I also installed one at my parents for dad at their split level home. The cost was $4k and did not take up a lot of space and easy to use. Installation took a couple of hours. After his passing, mom decided not to sell the house. She uses it sometimes, but she wants to stay as long as she can to get her money’s worth on the stair lift, lol. We did not put one in from the main level to the lower level (5 steps to FR, laundry, extra rooms.) Dad never went on that level.
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My MIL keeps asking us when we’re going to move to a one story house. She seems to have us confused with my SIL, who has a lot of trouble with the stairs in her house. But we have no health issues that make stairs a problem, and we enjoy the added benefit of going up & down the stairs (including the basement stairs) often. If stairs become a problem, we’ll either install a stairlift or move. Heck, my in laws had a one story house and they still had to move, because my FIL needed assistance & even with home healthcare workers, it was too much for MIL. So for me, I see no problem with healthy 60 year olds buying a house with stairs.
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Short answer - no.
Seems like there are too many things you “could live with” that are not what you would prefer to have. Why settle?
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We did. We moved and downsized. The house we fell in love with (and bought) does not have a main level bedroom (though there is a full bath on that level). The house itself is on a narrow city lot, so while it is a single family detached home, it lives like a townhome.
I like to think this is our forever home but realistically we may end up having to make a move. Hopefully that wont be for several years. I do “scope out” condos in my neighborhood and the one next to it for future reference.
I think psychologically, and physically it is easier to think this way if you have made previous moves. It’s very hard for people who have lived in the same house for 40, 50,60… years and have never downsized or cleaned out and are very attached emotionally to a particular house.
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Yes, we would. I plan to have stairs as long as we can. My 80 year old mom credits stairs for keeping her fit. Her laundry is in the basement and her bedroom is on the second floor, so she is always going up and down. Both sets of stairs are carpeted and have a landing, so they are not unsafe. My mom is an active person who loves to hike, walk, swim and kayak.
When my mom had spine surgery, (for spondylolisthesis and spinal cord compression) we were worried about how it would work out with the bedroom upstairs. She spent three nights in the hospital, and then came home. She went up the stairs very, very slowly to her bedroom and then stayed up there for four days. My dad and I brought food up for her and she took walks in the hall. On the fifth day, she was ready for the stairs again, but at first she would just come down once and go back up at night. Her surgeon said that he knew she would have an easier recovery than many because of her muscle tone and aerobic fitness. Recovery was long but smooth.
My mother-in-law lives on one floor. She was getting progressively weaker because she doesn’t like to exercise and never climbs stairs. When she got too weak to get in and out of our car, we ighly encouraged her to try PT. Thank goodness, she likes it. We have a PT come to her house twice a week. This has kept her strong enough to make it up two or three stairs (with railings) at grandchildren’s graduations and weddings. She still has trouble getting up from a low chair, and has fallen several times and been unable to get back up without help.
The contrast between our moms has been a lesson in “use it or lose it” for me. I know my mom probably has genetic advantages also, but I want to hold on to whatever strength I can and stairs are way cheaper than PT😉.
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I would buy a house with bedrooms only on the 2nd floor but I’d want a full bath (at least a shower) on both floors. We don’t have that currently (only full bath is on the second floor) but expect to move in the next 5-10 years in any case. My mother who has very limited mobility still climbs stairs in her late 80’s and my father was still climbing them at 89 (only stopped the last two months of his life). Both go slowly and one step at a time holding on on the rail but neither ever complained about it. They both throw stuff down the stairs or put it in a bag over their shoulder to keep both hands free which is important for falls and their stairs are carpeted (mine are not, as we get older I would definitely at least add a runner).
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Very interesting thread! And I can see both sides of it. We have a 100+ year old house. We have stairs. Lots of stairs. Two staircases between the main 2 floors. Rickety stairs to the very scary basement. And another permanent staircase to the attic. I’m used to stairs. I can see how it keeps one fit, and we have no issues with them. Even after meniscus surgery, I was going up/down them within a day I think. I know the next week at work, I took the elevator for maybe a day or two. H didn’t have trouble with his hip replacement. And we only have a 1/2 bath on the first floor.
But of course, things could be worse in a flash. We couldn’t sell quickly here. At least, nowadays we have a chance for it TO sell. I figure we would deal with it best we could until we could move. We’re pretty good with making do around these parts.
That being said, this isn’t going to be our forever house. It probably won’t be our house in 5-10 more years. Next house in a new location, we will probably be lucky to buy a shack wherever we do wind up, so it will likely be a moot point for us.
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We bought a new (for us) house with all BRs upstairs when we were 63 and 61. We’re now 75 and 73. I’m fine with stairs – I exercise a lot, and the stairs are no biggie for me. In fact, the laundry room is in the basement so I do those stairs a lot too. But DH is having a lot of musculo-skeletal problems, hence difficulty on the stairs, and we may need a stairlift at some point.
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I personally wouldn’t. I’ve always lived in houses with stairs and I prefer houses with stairs. I adore eclectic old houses with character and upper-floor bedrooms. But I won’t buy another multi-story house.
We’re planning on downsizing when we’re 49, from ~4K to ~1-2K square feet. We are both young and fit and exercise a ton. But we are a very tall family and we’ve seen how hard it is for our tall relatives to navigate stairs as they age.
So even though we’re “young”, we’ll only look at single-story homes when we move. A basement is fine and nearly all the homes in our area have one. We hate the hassle of moving, so I’d rather get a house I can see us living in even when we’re decrepit.
And we don’t want the upper floor to be inaccessible even if they’re just spare bedrooms. If we choose to move later, great. But I don’t want to be forced into it.
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One solution, which I am doing, is to rent! I am switching to looking for rentals, myself. Greater flexibility for all kinds of reasons.
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I don’t think stairs keep you young; they make you old because of the risk they present. However much we all may want to be 40, a fall at 60, 70 or 80 is far different in consequence than a young person’s fall. Recognizing that is just acknowledgement of reality, not living in fear. We may even feel 40 but the sad truth is, our bones aren’t.
It is like walking on ice-yeah, it keeps your sense of balance and reflexes sharp. Until it doesn’t.
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