Homeowners may be 'overconfident in their retirement readiness,’ economist says. Here’s why

Owning a home makes some people feel more confident about their prospects for retirement — but that may be misguided, some experts say.

About 37% of polled workers — including those with part- or full-time jobs, or who are self-employed or business owners — say they are “ahead of schedule” (7%) or “on schedule” (30%) in their retirement savings, according to the Your Money Retirement Survey conducted by SurveyMonkey and CNBC.com.

Of those who said they were ahead or on schedule, 42% cite an early start in retirement savings helped them get ahead. Other factors that contributed to their readiness included having little-to-no debt (38%) and home equity or ownership (37%), the report found.

The survey polled 6,657 adults, including 2,603 retired adults and 4,054 adult workers, in August.

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But homeowners’ confidence about the wealth in their home value might be misplaced, according to Angie Chen, a senior research economist and the assistant director of savings research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. 

“Homeowners are actually more likely to be overconfident in their retirement readiness,” Chen said. “There’s a lot of misconception in terms of how people assess whether they are ahead or not in retirement.”

Still, owning a home can help bring other benefits in retirement years, said Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, California.

Here’s what to know.

The Center for Retirement Research’s National Retirement Risk Index measures the share of working-age households at risk of being financially unprepared for retirement. When comparing individual household assessments with the NRRI in 2023, a CRR analysis found 28% are “not worried enough” — meaning they think they are not at risk, while the index predicts they are.

“People who own houses but still owe a lot on their houses are much more likely to be overconfident or not worried enough,” said Chen. 

In order to better assess retirement readiness, “it’s important to not just consider the value of your home, but also how much you borrowed,” said Chen, and how much you still owe.

For example: If you bought a $500,000 house, but still owe $400,000 on it, your equity is really $100,000, she said. Tapping that equity isn’t always cheap, and there can be risks to borrowing against your home, experts say.

“Housing is not really liquid,” Chen said. “You might feel good about having this large asset, but you can’t consume that in retirement. You can’t spend it in a way that you can spend and consume other types of savings.” 

On the other hand, owning a home can have certain upsides, according to experts.

“Homeownership is sort of twofold,” said Sun, who is a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. 

For one, you’re building equity. When you sell the property — say if you downsize once you’re retired — you can access that money as a lump sum, Sun explained.

Plus while you own the property, “you have a controlled cost of housing” that may include a set mortgage payment, Sun said.

While homeownership costs like home insurance and property taxes have increased in recent years, you may qualify for senior pricing on utilities by the time you’re retired, said Sun.

“A lot of my clients, as they get older, they also qualify for senior pricing on their utilities,” said Sun. “So some of their costs could come down as they get older.”

While a house is not liquid, you may be able to tap into your home equity if you need to, experts say.

“In most cases for retirees, they kind of see equity as their emergency fund,” Sun said.