Last year, more than 2 million retirement-age Americans moved. The average age was 75. The median distance was 11.7 miles. And more than 70% moved into homes nearly identical to what they left — three bedrooms, two baths, built in 1981. In this episode, Dr. Rachael Van Pelt unpacks the difference between relocating and rightsizing, shares two stories that illustrate why the distinction matters, and explains how status quo bias doesn't just keep you in your current home, it follows you to the next one. If you're planning a move, the question isn't where. The question is whether the move will actually change your health trajectory.
Last year, more than 2 million retirement-age Americans moved. The average age was 75. The median distance was 11.7 miles. And more than 70% moved into homes nearly identical to what they left — three bedrooms, two baths, built in 1981. In this episode, Dr. Rachael Van Pelt unpacks the difference between relocating and rightsizing, shares two stories that illustrate why the distinction matters, and explains how status quo bias doesn't just keep you in your current home, it follows you to the next one. If you're planning a move, the question isn't where. The question is whether the move will actually change your health trajectory.
👉 Try Dr. Van Pelt's free Rightsizing Decision Coach tool at coach.rightsizeretirement.com — it takes about 5 minutes and scores your home on Body, Brain, Bank, and Base.
Chapters
00:00 The Great Retirement Migration
02:18 Relocating vs. Rightsizing
03:57 Status Quo Bias Follows You to the Next Home
05:32 Case Studies: Lateral Moves vs. Strategic Rightsizing
11:43 Assessing Your Move: The Importance of Honest Evaluation
15:11 Timing Your Move for Maximum Impact
Read the full retirement study report: https://www.hireahelper.com/moving-statistics/retirement-study-2026/
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the go-to podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. Today I want to share with you a fascinating study that just analyzed nearly 15 million moves across the US in 2025. And buried in that data is the story of what retirement-age Americans are actually doing when they relocate. Here's what the study found.
Last August, August 2025, was the single biggest month for retirement moves in America. More than 241,000 people relocated just in one month. Throughout all of 2025, more than 2 million Americans aged 65 and older changed addresses. That's not a trickle, that is a mass migration. And what's interesting? The median distance of those moves was only about 11.7 miles, which means the typical move was just a zip code away.
But what really caught my attention, the average age of a retirement mover last year was 75. Those aren't retirees in their Go-Strong years that roughly age 55 to 67 period when health is still improvable and options are widest. 75, that's Go-Less territory, a full decade past the window when a rightsizing move would have had the most impact on their healthspan. So what are we looking at? What we're looking at is a quarter of a million people moving in a single month, mostly short distances, mostly late in life. And most of these moves solved a logistics problem. Fewer stairs, a cheaper zip code, closer to grandkids. But solving logistics is not the same as rightsizing. And that distinction, that difference between relocating and rightsizing, that's what I want to talk about today.
But before I unpack that, if what I described today hits home, I want you to remember that I built a free tool called the Rightsizing Decision Coach. It's an assessment that only takes about five minutes and walks you through 24 questions that tell you exactly where your home is helping or hurting your healthspan. You'll find the tool at coach.rightsizeretirement.com. I think you'll agree it's a great accompaniment to today's podcast.
But back to the difference between relocating and rightsizing, because I think it's a distinction few people are making. Relocating is just a change of address. You might solve the immediate friction, but you stop there. You find a house that removes a pain point, but otherwise the new home functions almost identical to the old one. Similar layout, similar neighbors, similar distance from the things that keep you healthy. You move, but little changes. Rightsizing, on the other hand, changes your trajectory. It means the move was designed around how your home shapes your Body. Are you moving more or less? And also your Brain. Are you stimulated? Are you connected? Or slowly withdrawing? And your Bank - Are you unlocking equity and reducing carrying costs or just trading one set of expenses for another? And your Base - Does your location actually fit the life you're heading into?
Here's what the data says: something I don't think anybody's talking about. More than 70% of retirement age movers chose two or three-bedroom homes. They were 16 times more likely to move into a three-bedroom home than a one-bedroom. And the average home that they moved into was built in 1981. Just think about what that means. Retirees moved into homes that look almost exactly like what they left. Three bedrooms, two baths, a house built over 40 years ago. That's not a strategic decision for your Next Act. That's just a lateral transfer.
And here's where the psychology matters. This is a status quo bias, but not in the way I usually talk about it here. Status quo bias doesn't always just keep you in your current home. Sometimes it follows you to the next one. You replicate what feels familiar because your brain codes familiar as safe. Same number of bedrooms, even though you haven't had anyone in the guest room in years. Same kind of neighborhood, even though that neighborhood requires a car for everything. Same vintage of home, even though a 1981 house comes with a 1981 maintenance burden. Familiar does not equate to functional.
So here's a test I want you to do. What would happen if before you moved, you scored your home on Body, Brain, Bank, and Base, those four domains. And then you scored the home that you were considering. Would the numbers actually move? If both scores are roughly the same thing you haven't rightsized, you relocated. And that's exactly what my Rightsizing Decision Coach tool was designed for. It walks you through questions across the four domains and shows you exactly where your home is supporting you and where it's quietly working against you. It gives you a baseline number that converts your gut feeling into something measurable. Again, you can try that tool at coach.rightsizeretirement.com. I'll leave a link in the show notes.
But I want to share a couple of stories that I think do a nice job of contrasting the lateral relocation versus a true rightsizing move.
One couple I know just turned 60 and 58, respectively. Greg retired from an engineering job. Nancy still works part-time as an occupational therapist. They sold their four-bedroom in the suburbs, a house that they'd owned for 25 years. And they moved about 15 miles away to a gated 55+ community, one that a couple from their church had been raving about.
On paper, all of their must-have boxes were checked. Single story villa, newer construction that they didn't expect would have maintenance surprises, an HOA to handle the landscaping and snow removal. It even had a lovely community pool and a clubhouse with a full social calendar. It had walking paths, it had lower property taxes, all of the things, right? The community director called it a lifestyle upgrade, and they agreed.
But here's what nobody measured. The community sat nearly five miles from the nearest grocery store, sixteen miles from their healthcare providers. The walking paths, they were just a half mile circuit that looped behind the development and dead-ended at a retention pond. They were nice for the first few weeks, but completely forgettable by the second month. And the clubhouse events skewed heavily towards residents in their mid to late 70s. Trivia nights, bingo, a monthly potluck, things that Greg described as nice, but not quite their speed. So they didn't join anything. And the pool even closed after Labor Day and didn't open till Memorial Day. So nine months of the year, the amenity that sold them on the community sat behind a locked fence.
Meanwhile, they'd moved 18 miles from the neighborhood where they'd spent two decades building relationships. Nancy's book club, Greg's Saturday morning disc golf crew, their favorite restaurants, all of it now required a deliberate 30-minute trip instead of just being a part of their usual day-to-day. So they went out less and less. And what happened within a year, Greg and Nancy just found themselves less social, more sedentary than they'd been before the move. And their monthly carrying costs barely budged, despite having a smaller footprint thanks to the higher HOA fees and car maintenance. They'd solved for newness, but they hadn't solved for health or wealth or connectivity. They hadn't solved for the life that they were actually heading into.
Now if I'd scored their old home on those four domains (Body, Brain, Bank, and Base) and then scored the new one, the numbers would have barely moved. In some domains, they would have gone backwards. Greg and Nancy had relocated. They hadn't actually rightsized.
On the other hand, I know another woman, Joanne, who was a retired school administrator. She retired at 62 shortly after her husband died of pancreatic cancer. After the blur of funeral arrangements and estate paperwork, she found herself living alone in a house that still worked perfectly well on paper. It was a comfortable three-bedroom, it was fully paid off, it had a great lot on a quiet cul-de-sac. Her husband's workshop was still in the garage, the garden that they'd built together bloomed beautifully. Her immediate neighbors even brought her casseroles and checked in on her for weeks after the funeral. Nobody was telling her to move. In fact, most people said just the opposite. They told her not to make any big decisions for at least a couple of years after the funeral. And for a while she listened, she stayed put.
But after 18 months, something had shifted. The house wasn't hard to manage. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that every room was organized around a life that no longer existed. She had a big dining room table that was no longer being used for entertaining. Her husband's workshop was sitting untouched. The guest rooms, they just sat empty unless her kids visited, and that was down to just about once a year. She wasn't drowning in grief anymore, but she was living in a house that was built for a chapter that had ended.
So she did something most people don't. She sat down and honestly assessed not whether the house was manageable, but whether it was helping her build what comes next. When she looked at Body, she realized she was barely moving. That cul-de-sac had no destination. She drove to everything. When she looked at Brain, she realized she was cognitively stuck in a routine that didn't challenge her mind in novel ways anymore. She was just starting to feel her memory slide, in addition to the melancholy of missing her husband's presence. When she looked at Bank, it was great that the house was paid off, but she had roughly $380,000 in equity sitting there doing nothing for her future. When she looked at Base, she realized just how isolated she really was. Sure, she had kind neighbors, but they weren't really her community. She didn't spend quality time with them. And the location just required a car for everything. There was not really any social infrastructure within reach.
So she moved about seven miles away to a two-bedroom condo near a town center. Walking distance to a creek path, a library, a farmer's market, had a few restaurants that she liked to rotate through with a friend that she'd met there. She unlocked nearly $350,000 in equity after the purchase, and she reinvested that money into her retirement accounts and her travel fund, a travel fund to visit her kids twice a year. Her monthly housing cost even dropped over $400 a month. But here's the part that doesn't show up in the financial math. Within six months, Joanne was walking 5000 more steps a day. It wasn't because she joined a gym, it was because now she had somewhere to walk. She joined a book club at the library. She started volunteering one morning a week at the local animal shelter. She told me "I didn't do this to get over Robert. I did this to make sure I kept moving forward". She just knew that her quality of life would suffer if she stayed put.
And that's the contrast. Those are two different moves with very different outcomes. One couple moved to a community ostensibly built for retirees, but they ended up shrinking their quality of life. And the widow, she had every reason to stay put. But she moved to a condo near a town center that she loved and she ended up growing her quality of life. The couple relocated, the widow rightsized. The difference wasn't in the size or the type of home, it was just the honest assessment of what they needed to support their next act. The difference was what they measured before they moved.
And here's the part that should concern you. Greg and Nancy actually moved during their Go-Strong years. They had the timing right. But timing alone isn't enough. Without an honest assessment, the move itself isn't going to change a trajectory, at least not for the better. Only Joanne improved her trajectory because she took the time to look at each domain and assess what she actually needed to improve her healthspan.
Remember, the average retiree in that study I mentioned was age 75. They were a full decade past their Go-Strong window, which means the vast majority of those 241,000 retirees who moved last August had neither the timing right nor the honest assessment to positively impact their long game. That's not an empowering rightsize, that's a lateral transfer.
Now, maybe you're listening to this because you've already been thinking about a move. Maybe you've been browsing listings in the next town over. But I want to be crystal clear about what I'm saying and not saying. I'm not saying you should avoid the gated 55+ community and move to a walkable condo in town. I'm not giving you a one-size-fits-all prescription. In fact, just the opposite. I am suggesting that you look closely at your specific situation and exactly what you need to improve your long-term healthspan and wealthspan and independence.
A 55+ community could be the perfect fit if it puts you in a walkable community near the healthcare you need and the social infrastructure that keeps your Brain engaged and your Body moving. Conversely, you could easily replicate every single problem you already have if you chase an amenity brochure without thinking about what your home is actually doing to your Body, your Brain, your finances, your daily life. The point is not simply to move. The point is whether the move is going to change your scores.
And I know why the brochure is tempting. The pool, the clubhouse, the walking paths, they look like it a great answer. But an amenity you don't use is not a health intervention. A pool that's going to be closed nine months a year is not going to improve your Body score. A clubhouse that skews 15 years too old, that's not improving your Brain score. Greg and Nancy were a perfect example of that.
The question is not "where should I move in retirement"? The question is "what kind of move, if any, is going to best support my Next Act"? And if the answer is "I'm not sure", that's exactly what the Decision Coach is designed for. Because here's what I've learned after 25 years of studying how people age and from working with hundreds of people navigating exactly this moment - the most expensive action plan is the one that doesn't improve your health trajectory. You spend the money, you endure the disruption, you go through the emotional upheaval of leaving a home you love, and you just end up in a place that has zero impact on your long-term health and wealth and independence. That's not a move, that's an expensive lateral.
241,000 people moved last August. This August, some of you will too. Peak moving season is happening right now. Don't just follow the relocation crowd. Make sure you're in the small minority who actually rightsize, people who design a move around the life they're heading into, not the life they're leaving behind. And don't forget that when you act matters as much as whether you act.
Your Go-Strong window (between the ages of 55 and 67 approximately) that's when this kind of move is going to give you the most leverage. That's when your health is still improvable and your options are widest, and you have the capacity to manage a transition on your own terms. If you wait until 75, like most people do, your window closes and options diminish. And worse, someone else may have to step in and make the decision for you.
So, if you're in your Go-Strong years or close to them and you're starting to wonder whether your home still fits the life you're headed into, take the Rightsizing Decision Coach assessment. It's free, it just takes five minutes, and it's going to score your Body, your Brain, your Bank, and your Base, those four domains. It's going to tell you exactly which of those domains is your biggest bottleneck. It's not going to make the decision for you, it's just going to help you think through your specific situation. Again, that tool is at coach.rightsizeretirement.com. You'll find a link in the show notes.
Until next time, my friends, live well, love more, age less.