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What It Really Costs to Stay in Your Minnesota Home as You Age

Jim Lesinski·Chief Growth Officer·
What It Really Costs to Stay in Your Minnesota Home as You Age

The short answer: a paid-off Minnesota house is not free to keep. On a $400,000 home, close to the Twin Cities median sale price, property tax, insurance, upkeep and snow removal come to roughly $12,000 to $24,000 a year before utilities. Big replacements come on top of that: a new furnace runs about $6,300 to $11,600 installed in the Twin Cities. Making the house safe as you age adds more, with a straight stair lift at about $2,000 to $8,000 and a walk-in shower at about $5,000 to $11,000. Staying can still be the right choice, but it should be compared with real numbers on the other side: Minnesota's median cost of assisted living was $6,573 a month in 2025, and state programs such as the Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral can change the math either way.

In my October column for Minnesota Good Age, “The hidden cost of staying put”, I made one argument: when older homeowners weigh a move, they tend to compare the cost of moving against a cost of staying that they assume is zero. It is not zero. A house keeps asking for money, time and energy long after the mortgage is gone.

That column was about the questions. This guide adds the numbers, so you can put a rough figure next to each one for your own home.

Staying in your home is not free

Most of us want to stay. In AARP's 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey, 75% of adults 50 and older said they want to remain in their current homes as they age. That makes sense. Your home holds your routines, your neighbors and decades of memories, and staying can be the right choice.

It is also a choice more and more Minnesotans face. The State Demographic Center projects that by 2030 more than 1 in 5 Minnesotans will be 65 or older, and most older Minnesotans own their homes: 78% of households headed by someone 65 or older, according to the State Demographer, and about two thirds of those owners no longer have a mortgage.

The mistake is treating staying as the default that costs nothing. A better question is the one I ended the column with: does this home still support the life you want for the next five to 15 years? Answering it honestly means pricing four things: what the house costs to carry, what it will need, what it would take to make it safe as you age, and what the alternatives cost.

The costs a paid-off house still carries

Paying off the mortgage removes the biggest bill, not all of them. Here is a rough yearly budget for a $400,000 home, close to the Twin Cities median sale price of $395,000 in September 2026.

CostWhat the data saysOn a $400,000 home, per year
Property taxEffective rate of about 1% of home value statewide. Median bills in the seven metro counties run from $3,271 in Anoka County to $4,501 in Carver County.About $4,000
Homeowners insuranceMinnesota average of $3,987 a year in mid-2026, up 12.9% in the first half of the year.About $4,000
Maintenance and repairsCommon rule of thumb: set aside 1% to 4% of the home's value every year.$4,000 to $16,000
Snow removalSeasonal contracts typically run $250 to $450 (national estimate).$250 to $450
Total before utilitiesRoughly $12,000 to $24,000

That is about $1,000 to $2,000 a month for a house with no mortgage, before heat, electricity, water, lawn care or any help you hire. Your numbers will differ with your home's value, age and county, but the point holds: staying has a monthly cost, and it tends to rise. Minnesota insurance premiums alone rose 12.9% in six months this year.

Big systems wear out on their own schedule

A roof, a furnace and a water heater do not care whether the mortgage is paid off. If your home is 30 or 40 years old and you have lived there for most of that time, there is a good chance at least one of them is due.

ReplacementTypical installed cost
Asphalt roofRoughly $7,000 to $9,000 for a typical Minnesota home, per cost guides. Larger, steeper or more complex roofs cost more.
Furnace$6,300 to $11,600 in the Twin Cities. A standard high-efficiency swap runs about $6,300 to $7,900.
Water heaterMost homeowners pay $900 to $3,000, with an average around $1,400 (national estimate).

In Minnesota the furnace is not optional, and the roof carries snow every winter. Treat these as expected expenses with a rough year attached, not as surprises. The maintenance budget above is what pays for them when they come due.

What it costs to make a home fit you at 80

Most houses were designed for the family that bought them, not for the same people decades later. Stairs to the only full bathroom, laundry in the basement, a tub you have to step over and a front step with no railing are all manageable at 55 and much harder at 80. In AARP's 2024 survey, 43% of adults 50 and older said they will need to make their homes more accessible. Of those, 72% expect bathroom changes and 71% expect ramps, chairlifts or wider doorways.

ModificationTypical installed cost (national estimates)
Grab bar$85 to $300 each, about $248 on average
Widening a doorway$300 to $2,500, more if the wall is load-bearing
Moving washer and dryer hookups upstairs$500 to $2,000
Wheelchair ramp$1,700 to $5,000, about $3,000 on average
Straight stair lift$2,000 to $8,000
Walk-in shower$5,000 to $11,000, about $8,000 on average

Small changes such as better lighting, grab bars, lever handles and removing loose rugs are inexpensive and worth doing whatever you decide. The bigger projects are where the decision gets real. A stair lift, a walk-in shower and a ramp together come to roughly $8,700 to $24,000. If your home needs all three to work for you, add that to the cost of staying.

Paying for rooms you no longer use

Many of us raised children in houses that now have two or three bedrooms nobody sleeps in. Those rooms still get heated, cooled, cleaned, insured and taxed. Property tax and insurance are charged on the whole house, not on the rooms you use.

Take the $400,000 example above with a middle-of-the-range upkeep budget of 2.5%: tax, insurance and upkeep come to about $18,000 a year. If a third of the house sits empty most of the time, roughly $6,000 of that pays for space no one uses. It is a rough way to think about it, but it is a useful one when you are deciding whether the extra room is worth what it costs.

Minnesota programs that change the math

A few state programs are worth knowing about whether you stay or sell.

What the alternatives cost

Moving is not automatically cheaper. The point is to compare real numbers on both sides.

That equity is often the largest asset older Minnesotans have, and it is locked up while you stay. When you sell a home you have owned and lived in for at least two of the last five years, the IRS lets you exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from income, or up to $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. Two details matter for older sellers. A surviving spouse can generally still use the $500,000 exclusion if the home is sold within two years of the spouse's death and other tests are met. And if you move into a licensed care facility because you can no longer care for yourself, time there can count toward the two-year residence test, as long as you lived in the home for at least 12 months of the previous five years. Talk with a tax professional about your own situation.

Plan before a crisis decides for you

Falls are the leading cause of injury and of injury-related death for adults 65 and older. According to the CDC, more than 14 million older adults, about 1 in 4, report falling every year, and falls led to about 4.5 million emergency department visits and more than 43,000 deaths in 2024. The hardest version of this decision is the one made in the weeks after a fall, a hospital stay or the loss of a spouse, when there is no time to compare options.

Planning early does not mean deciding to move. It means knowing your numbers, knowing what your home would need, and knowing what you would do if your health changed, so a hard week does not force a rushed sale.

A stay-or-sell checklist

Sit down with these questions, ideally with your spouse or an adult child:

If most of your answers point toward staying, invest in making the home safe and keep a real maintenance budget. If they point the other way, it is better to start planning a move while you have time and choices.

Common questions

Is it cheaper to stay in my house or move to assisted living?

It depends on how much help you need. Carrying a paid-off $400,000 Minnesota home costs roughly $1,000 to $2,000 a month in property tax, insurance and upkeep before utilities, compared with a 2025 Minnesota median of $6,573 a month for assisted living. If you need only a few hours of help a week, staying is usually cheaper. If you need close to full-time help at home, the state median of $8,389 a month for 44 hours a week of in-home care can cost more than assisted living.

How much does it cost to make a house safe for aging in place?

Basic safety changes such as grab bars ($85 to $300 each), better lighting and removing trip hazards cost a few hundred dollars. Larger projects cost thousands: a straight stair lift runs about $2,000 to $8,000, a walk-in shower about $5,000 to $11,000 and a wheelchair ramp about $1,700 to $5,000, based on national cost estimates.

Can seniors postpone property taxes in Minnesota?

Yes. Through the Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral Program, homeowners 65 or older with household income of $96,000 or less who have owned and lived in their home for at least five years can limit the property tax they pay to 3% of the prior year's household income. The state covers the rest as a loan secured by the home. Applications are due by November 1 for the following year.

Will I owe tax when I sell a home I have lived in for decades?

Many sellers will not. If you owned and lived in the home for at least two of the last five years, you can exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for married couples filing jointly. Gain above that may be taxable, so check with a tax professional before you sell.

When should I start thinking about whether to stay or move?

Before you have to. Look five to 15 years ahead and ask whether the house will still fit your health, budget and daily life. Deciding after a fall or a health change leaves fewer options and less time.

If you are leaning toward a move

Homestead Road has bought homes directly from Minnesota homeowners since 2007, including many older owners leaving a house they lived in for decades. We buy as-is, so the roof, the furnace and the dated bathroom do not have to be fixed first, and you choose the closing date. Our downsizing page explains how that works, our home sale calculator compares a traditional listing with a cash sale, and you can request a no-obligation cash offer to see a real number for your home. If you are helping a parent through this, our guide to guiding parents through a home sale covers the family side of the conversation, and the hidden costs of waiting to sell looks at what each extra month in a house you plan to leave costs.

Sources and data notes

Cost-guide figures (Fixr, This Old House, Modernize) are estimates, not quotes; get bids for your own home. National figures are noted where Minnesota-specific data was not available.

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