Brenda Beeson loves her house. It’s where she woke up next to her husband each morning and rushed her daughter out to school. She never thought the house in South King County, Washington, once so full of life, could feel as empty as it does now.

Ever since her husband unexpectedly died in 2018 and her daughter moved out, four of the home’s five bedrooms sit unused. The stairs, which once frequently creaked with footsteps, are now simply a barrier to the disabled woman’s bedroom. She’s drowning in bills. Maintenance for the big house, bought two decades ago, is piling up.

Despite her memories of her home's better days, Beeson is ready to give it up for a smaller place. But that’s easier said than done.

People like Beeson, who secured homes years ago in fast-growing places, such as King County, have benefited from skyrocketing house values. But that doesn’t make downsizing automatically affordable — or, at the very least, easy.

High housing costs and interest rates have people feeling trapped in their homes. Even if someone owns their house outright and cashes out, that money doesn’t go as far as it used to — homes in Seattle are some of the most expensive in the nation, and the price gap between small and big homes is shrinking.

For some, downsizing isn’t possible unless they pay all in cash. Divorced individuals without jobs, people on fixed incomes and widowed people often face more challenges in securing mortgages. And with a limited supply of not just homes in general, but reasonably priced homes, alternatives are narrow.

No matter people’s reasons for not downsizing, the result of staying put is an additional strain on the overall supply, especially for large houses in King County.

Beeson doesn’t want to contribute to that problem, but she’s unsure how to escape it.

She lives on disability and Social Security after mobility issues forced her to quit as a special-education teacher. She worries she won’t qualify for a mortgage and that selling her house wouldn’t yield enough to purchase a decent home in the area near her daughter, who cares for her.

Until she figures out a solution — a renter, hopefully — she’ll continue putting nearly three-quarters of her income into her housing costs.

“I’m stuck,” said Beeson, 58. “For me to leave, it would be difficult. For me to stay, it would be difficult.”

Generational divide

There’s an unavoidable controversy behind this issue — generational resentment toward people with big homes who won’t downsize.

“I think this is one ugly consequence of housing insecurity,” said Windermere principal economist Jeff Tucker.

Young generations are frustrated with older generations for hanging onto homes they don’t need. Inventory levels are historically low, especially in the Seattle area, and families are struggling to find — and afford — homes.

Big families who need homes with more than three bedrooms are especially having trouble, said Seattle real estate agent Candace Hagen.

“We don't have a ton coming on the market,” she said.

Across the board, the shortage is driving up home prices, but the increase is uneven.

So far this year, the median price of a bigger home (1,200 to 2,199 square feet) hit $665,000 — that's 2.2 times the median price a decade ago, according to data of King, Kitsap, Snohomish and Pierce Counties gathered by Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

But the median price of smaller homes (500-1,199 square feet) has gone up even faster. At $500,000, it is about 2.4 times the median price in 2015. That means the cost of entering the market or downsizing has gone up, because in an area strained for supply, land is more valuable than the structure on it, Tucker said.

“I definitely have heard from retirees, empty nesters and folks trying to decide where to retire who are aghast at the cost of small homes,” he said.

Can’t or won’t?

It’s true that many people can downsize and won’t.

People like the privacy a large home provides, and the ability to host family gatherings or guests, Tucker said. For many, there’s not enough reason to move from the home they’ve maybe lived their whole lives in.

A 2021 AARP survey found 8 in 10 older adults want to age in their homes, although dozens of surveys show the potential savings from downsizing.

But not everyone can unlock those savings — especially if they have a mortgage to pay off first.

The median sale price for a 1,200- to 2,199-square-foot home in 2019 was $425,000 across King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service data. Let’s say someone back then made a 20% down payment and secured a 3% interest rate on one of those homes. Their monthly principal and interest payment is around $1,433.

Now, it’s 2025, and they want to downsize. The same area's median sale price for a 500 to 1,199 square-foot home is $500,000. Their house is now worth around $665,000, and they have $294,000 left to pay off.

After selling, they pay off the rest of their mortgage and closing costs, which are typically 8% to 10% of the sale, according to Zillow. If closing costs are on the low end, they’re left with around $317,800.

They roll that over into a smaller, $500,000 home and secure a mortgage with a 6.26% interest rate. Their payments are now around $1,123 a month.

They would be saving around $310 a month, but they’d have to put all their cash profit into the house. They’d also have to start a 30-year mortgage all over again.

But let’s say they wanted to keep $100,000 of their gains for whatever reason. They’d be paying around $1,739 a month in principal and interest — $306 more than their original payment.

The financial savings may not be worth it or even nonexistent for people who don’t like any homes in their price point, said Seattle real estate agent Danny Greco.

“Depending on where they’re looking, they might still fall short,” he said.

Logistical challenges can outweigh any savings, too. People may have to rent and store their belongings between buying homes. Contingency offers — an offer to buy a house that is contingent on the buyer selling their house — usually aren’t the most appealing offer to a seller.

“Even if you own your home outright, (downsizing) can be challenging,” he said.

“Handcuffed to our homes”

Aaron Kamp’s five-bedroom Seattle home is about to be too big for his family now that he and his wife are soon to be empty nesters. It’s 3,100 square feet of maintenance, cleaning and taxes.

Although they would like to downsize, it doesn’t make much financial sense unless they want to live in a condo, he said — and they don’t. That’s because Kamp, 49, has a 3% interest rate on the home he bought, since he refinanced right before the pandemic.

Today, home prices are around 80% higher in King County than they were when he bought in 2016, and average mortgage rates have more than doubled.

Even though some people are celebrating mortgage rates coming down to 6.26% this month, they’re still nowhere near the rates of around 3% in 2020 and 2021.

For big-house owners looking to downsize, condos are a better deal than small houses are, based on NWMLS median prices. The cost of condos has crept up more slowly than that of single-family homes. The median price of a condo today is about 68% of the median price of a big house, while a small house costs 75%.

But few owners of large houses want to downsize to a condo, real estate agents said. They've grown accustomed to having space and are turned off by condo fees.

Kamp does plan to move into a smaller house when he retires — not in Seattle, but somewhere overseas where home prices are more affordable.

“I know a lot of people are in the same boat, and we are handcuffed to our homes. That’s not a bad thing,” he said. “All things considered, I really can’t complain, but it is holding a lot of people back from downsizing.”

Eleanor Payne, 51, knows that feeling. Each of her three children recently moved out for college and left behind empty bedrooms. Her home feels larger than ever.

“We feel we have a responsibility to our community to not take up so much space,” she said. “It feels environmentally irresponsible to occupy more space than we need.”

She crunched the numbers. Downsizing would be a squeeze. Her current interest rate is 3%, and she’s still paying off the mortgage after buying in 2020. The profit from her house wouldn’t be enough for a desirable home.

“It’s difficult for working people to make a cash purchase, especially people with three kids in college,” she said. “We’re hemorrhaging money elsewhere.”

Payne, who is a real estate agent, has watched the cost of smaller houses tick up faster than larger houses. She often has to have difficult conversations with her clients about what they can realistically afford in this market.

“The real estate market is unkind to everyone at the moment,” Payne said.

'It scares … me'

Like many surviving spouses, Beeson’s situation is less about disappointment with her options and more about the fear of jumping into a financial decision that will leave her worse off.

The idea of moving is especially daunting to her, but so is the idea of staying.

She paints rocks to distract herself from her constant worries, which mostly surround her medical and housing bills. But she knows she’ll have to make a change.

“I can make it, barely,” she said.

She still has $150,000 left to pay off on her home, she said, and believes the condition of her home is too poor to help her buy her next home without another mortgage.

“In this market, even if I wanted a 1,200-square-foot house, I'm still looking at $500,000,” she said. “I’m not going to net that much from my house. … Since my husband died, the house is falling down around my ears.”

This month, there were only four detached single-family homes in her area listed on Zillow for less than $500,000, one of them being an old dentist's office with barred windows.

Town homes and condos are more in her price range. But the liquidity gap she’d face between homes, the upfront costs of buying a new home and the cost of moving have her feeling frozen. She already struggles to cover her day-to-day expenses and medical bills. When her husband died, she lost two-thirds of her income.

“I live a really tight-to-the-hip type of lifestyle,” she said.

Beeson is looking into converting half her house into a rental. She’ll need to add another shower, but that investment is much less frightening to her than moving.

“It scares the crap out of me,” she said. “I am attached to the house. My husband died here.”

Feeling trapped somewhere, especially in an unaffordable place, can be lonely and paralyzing. But experts say they can help people unlock more options than they think are available if they can take the leap.

“People overestimate, often, how hard it might be to downsize,” Tucker said. “It might be easy for someone to get spooked by home prices.

For many, especially those in Beeson’s situation, downsizing isn’t easy, Tucker said. Maybe it’s not the right decision for some.

But talking with a good real estate agent can help clarify what someone’s home is worth and what options they truly have for downsizing. A mortgage broker can help people on fixed incomes find flexible loans they might not know exist.

“They may be getting that sticker shock on the purchase side, without a full picture of just how much equity they might actually have from selling their home,” Tucker said.

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