Rancho Peñasquitos · Retirement & Home Equity
Retirement and Home Equity Options for Rancho Peñasquitos Homeowners
Stay in the home you have, move to something that fits better, or use home equity so either path actually works — this page is a place to think that through before anyone sells you a product.
Amanda LaRussa
Mortgage Broker | Edge Home Finance
NMLS #2166834
Last updated: August 2026
You've been in the house a long time. Maybe you raised your kids here, walked them to school, know which neighbors put out the good Halloween candy.
And lately you've been thinking about the stairs.
Or the roof. Or what the yard costs to keep up now. Or what would happen if one of you needed help getting around. Maybe one of your kids brought it up and it didn't go well, and now nobody's talking about it.
I'm Amanda LaRussa. I'm a mortgage broker with Edge Home Finance, and I live here in PQ. Before this work I spent years in mental health and human behavior, and honestly, that background comes up more than the mortgage training does. Most of these conversations aren't really about loans. They're about what your life looks like in ten years, and who's going to be affected by what you decide.
So this page isn't a pitch. It's a place to start thinking clearly.
There is no universal right answer here
I want to say that plainly before anything else.
Some of my neighbors should absolutely stay in their homes. They have a low property tax bill, a house that still works, and people around them. Moving would cost them money and community, and they'd regret it.
Some should sell. The stairs have become a real safety issue, the maintenance is eating their savings, and a smaller place closer to family would genuinely make their days better.
And some should stay put and use a portion of their home equity to make the house work better and take pressure off their monthly budget.
The right answer depends on your numbers, your health, your family, and what you want your life to feel like. Anyone who tells you what to do before asking about all four is selling something.
Your Three Main Options
1
Stay and adapt the home you have
Staying doesn't mean doing nothing. It usually means making the house fit the next twenty years instead of the last twenty.
That can mean converting a downstairs room into a bedroom, replacing a tub with a walk-in shower, widening a doorway, adding grab bars and better lighting, or finally dealing with the roof and HVAC before they deal with you.
Why this often wins: you keep your Proposition 13 property tax basis, your neighbors, your doctors, your routines. Those have real value that doesn't show up in a spreadsheet.
What to look at honestly: what the modifications actually cost, what repairs are coming in the next five to ten years, and whether you'd still have reserves afterward.
2
Sell and rightsize
Sometimes called rightsizing, though most people just say downsizing.
This is selling the family home and buying something that fits how you live now — a single-story place, a condo without a yard, a home in a 55+ community, or something closer to your kids.
Why this often wins: less maintenance, fewer stairs, potentially lower monthly costs, and sometimes a meaningful amount of cash freed up.
What to look at honestly: a smaller San Diego home is still a San Diego home. Selling a house here doesn't mean you'll be shocked by what the next one costs — many longtime homeowners are. Add in commissions, repairs, moving, and closing costs, and the amount you actually walk away with is usually less than people expect.
If you want to run the stay-versus-move numbers for this neighborhood, I wrote a separate guide: staying or downsizing in Rancho Peñasquitos .
3
Use home equity or retirement-home financing strategically
This is the option most people know least about, and it covers more ground than just reverse mortgages.
Depending on your situation it might mean a home equity line of credit, a traditional refinance, a bridge strategy if you're buying before selling, a reverse mortgage if you're 62 or older, or a HECM for Purchase to buy your next home without spending all your cash.
Why this sometimes wins: it can improve monthly cash flow, fund the modifications that let you stay, or let you buy the next house while keeping more money liquid.
What to look at honestly: every one of these is a loan. Loans have costs, and some reduce what you leave behind. That's a real trade-off, and it should be a decision, not a surprise.
Questions to Ask Before You Decide
Take these in order. The money questions get much easier once the life questions are answered.
About the house
- Do you use most of it, or are you heating and cooling storage space?
- Are the stairs a problem now, or will they be?
- Is there a bedroom and full bathroom on the main floor?
- What repairs are coming — roof, HVAC, plumbing, paint, pool?
- Could you still live here comfortably if you stopped driving?
About the money
- What does this house actually cost per year, everything included?
- What's your property tax bill, and what would it be somewhere else?
- What would you truly net from a sale, after everything?
- How much cash do you want available for emergencies and care?
- Are your insurance and utility costs still what you think they are?
About your family
- Does your spouse agree, and have you talked about it directly?
- What happens to whoever is left if one of you passes first?
- Do your children know what you're considering?
- What do you want to leave behind, and how firm is that?
About your life
- Where do you actually want to be in ten years?
- Who's nearby if you need help on a Tuesday afternoon?
- What would you miss most about leaving this neighborhood?
How Proposition 19 May Affect the Decision
Here's the one that surprises people most, so I want to be clear about it.
A lot of longtime homeowners believe they're stuck. They bought decades ago, their property taxes are low because of Proposition 13, and they assume that selling means the next house resets to today's value and their tax bill jumps. For many people, that single belief is the whole reason they stay.
Proposition 19 changed that.
If you're 55 or older when you sell your primary residence, you may be able to transfer your home's taxable value to a replacement primary residence anywhere in California. Not the sale price — the much lower number the county has been taxing you on.
The general requirements:
- You must be 55 or older, severely and permanently disabled, or a victim of a wildfire or Governor-declared disaster
- Both homes must be your primary residence
- You must buy or build within two years of the sale
- You can use the benefit up to three times
- If the new home costs more than what you sold for, the difference is generally added to your transferred taxable value
It is not automatic. You have to file a claim with the county assessor where the new home is located, and there are deadlines — which is why it's worth understanding before you list, not after you close.
Note the age difference, because people mix these up constantly: Proposition 19 starts at 55. A HECM reverse mortgage generally requires the youngest borrower to be at least 62. Different programs, different rules.
I'm not a tax advisor. For the details on your specific property, go to the California State Board of Equalization or the San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk , and talk with your tax professional.
Where a Reverse Mortgage May — or May Not — Fit
Let me clear up the two things I hear most.
"The bank takes your house." No. With a reverse mortgage you keep title. Your name stays on the deed. You own the home.
"It's free money from the government." Also no. A reverse mortgage is a loan. It has interest, it has closing costs, and the balance grows over time rather than shrinking.
Here's how it actually works. A Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, or HECM, is insured by the Federal Housing Administration and generally available to homeowners 62 and older. It lets you convert part of your home equity into funds — as a line of credit, monthly payments, a lump sum, or a combination — without a required monthly principal and interest payment.
What you're still responsible for:
- Property taxes
- Homeowners insurance
- HOA dues, if applicable
- Maintaining the home
- Living there as your principal residence
Miss those and the loan can become due.
And the part people should hear before the benefits: because you're not making monthly payments, the unpaid balance generally grows and your remaining equity generally decreases over time. The loan becomes due after what's called a maturity event — typically when the last borrower permanently leaves the home or passes away.
When it may make sense: you want to stay in your home, monthly cash flow is tight, you have substantial equity, and you plan to be there for a good while.
When it usually doesn't: you're likely to move within a few years, leaving maximum equity to your children is your top priority, you can't comfortably cover taxes and insurance, or a simpler option would solve the same problem for less.
I turn people away from this product regularly. If the honest answer is that it doesn't fit, I'd rather tell you in August than have you find out in three years.
Before you could ever apply, you'd meet with an independent HUD-approved counselor — someone with no stake in your decision. I think that's a good requirement.
Read more from neutral sources: HUD's HECM program and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau .
For the San Diego overview — how reverse mortgages work, HECM vs. jumbo, and HECM for Purchase — see Reverse Mortgage San Diego .
Buying Your Next Home Without Using All Your Cash
Most people think there are two ways to buy the next house: pay cash, or take a mortgage with monthly payments.
There's a third that eligible buyers 62 and older often haven't heard of.
HECM for Purchase lets you buy a home using a substantial cash contribution plus reverse mortgage financing. You own the home and you're on title, same as any buyer. There's no required monthly principal and interest payment as long as you meet the loan terms — and you still pay taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and maintenance.
The situation it's built for: you sell the family home with real equity, you want a single-story place or something closer to the grandkids, but you don't want to put every dollar into the next house or take on a mortgage payment in your seventies.
How much cash you bring depends mostly on your age and interest rates at the time. It's a real calculation with a real number, not a rule of thumb.
And this works alongside Proposition 19. They're separate programs and neither blocks the other. A home that fits, a property tax basis carried over from decades ago, and no required monthly principal and interest payment — that combination is the version of downsizing most people never hear about.
It isn't automatically better than paying cash. The interest, the mortgage insurance premium, the closing costs, and the growing balance all have to be weighed against what having that cash available is worth to you.
Including Your Spouse and Children in the Conversation
This is where I probably differ from most loan officers, and it comes from my background more than my licensing.
Talk to your spouse first, and talk directly. I've sat with couples where each assumed they knew what the other wanted and both were wrong. Especially important: what happens to whoever is left. If only one spouse is on a loan, the rules about the other spouse staying in the home are specific and worth understanding clearly, before anything is signed.
Bring your kids in earlier than feels comfortable. Most family conflict I see doesn't come from the decision — it comes from finding out about it afterward. A parent who explains their reasoning gets support. A parent who announces a done deal gets an argument.
Adult children: lead with a question, not a conclusion. "Have you thought about what happens if the stairs get harder?" goes better than "you should sell." And know that your parent may be protecting you from worry as much as you're worrying about them.
Adult children are welcome on any call with me. Often they're the ones who reach out first. I don't have conversations about someone's parent without the parent knowing — not a policy, just how this ought to work.
A Fictional Example
The following is a hypothetical illustration only. It is not a real client, not a quote, and not a promise of terms or results.
Jim and Susan, both 72, longtime PQ homeowners.
Two-story home, four bedrooms, bought in the early 1990s. Kids are grown and in Portland and Phoenix. Susan has arthritis in her knees. The roof needs work. Their property tax bill is a fraction of what a new buyer on their street would pay, and they have substantial equity with a small mortgage balance remaining.
Option A — Stay and adapt
They convert the office into a downstairs bedroom, replace a tub with a walk-in shower, replace the roof, and hire monthly yard help. They keep their tax basis and their neighborhood. They'd need to confirm they still have reserves after the work.
Option B — Sell and pay cash for a single-story
No mortgage payment. But a large share of the proceeds goes into the new house, and what's left depends entirely on what they net and what they buy.
Option C — Sell and use a HECM for Purchase
They put down the required cash investment and finance the rest. More money stays liquid for healthcare and travel — but the loan balance grows and reduces what's available later.
There's no universal winner. It depends on their actual numbers, how long they plan to stay, what they want to leave their kids, and how they feel about carrying debt. Two couples with nearly identical finances can correctly choose differently.
How Amanda Helps
I organize the mortgage and home-equity side of a decision that's mostly not about mortgages.
That usually looks like:
- Laying out what staying costs versus what moving would net
- Explaining your financing options — traditional, reverse, HECM for Purchase, or none of them
- Running actual numbers instead of general ranges
- Telling you plainly when a loan isn't the right answer
- Identifying the questions to take to your CPA, agent, financial advisor, insurance agent, or estate attorney
- Including your spouse and adult children in the conversation
What I don't do: pressure you, oversimplify, or pretend a mortgage solves a problem that isn't a mortgage problem.
I'm not a tax advisor, attorney, financial planner, insurance agent, or real estate agent. I'll tell you when you need one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to be 62 to benefit from any of this?
If I get a reverse mortgage, does the bank own my home?
What happens to my house when I pass away?
Will my property taxes go up if I sell and buy another home in California?
Can I buy a home in my seventies without a monthly mortgage payment?
Is it cheaper to stay in my home or to downsize?
What if I talk to you and decide to do nothing?
Request a Stay-or-Move Comparison
This is an educational mortgage and home-equity comparison. It is not an application, not a commitment to sell your home, and not a commitment to obtain a reverse mortgage.
If you're deciding whether to stay, move, or use part of your home equity, I can help you compare the mortgage side of those choices. When appropriate, we can also identify questions for your real estate agent, tax professional, financial advisor, insurance professional, or estate-planning attorney.
Adult children and other family members are welcome to join.