if they sell them and have a mortgage they will have to finance something else at a much higher rate.
if they sell them and its paid off, they will have to pay a huge tax bill on the appreciation and then still have to pay outrageous amounts for something else to live in
If they instead hold onto it until they die, the basis resets and their heirs can sell it without paying taxes or needing to purchase something else to live in.
This is why.
oh! and if they live in a state where they property taxes are frozen after reaching a certain age... selling and moving they would lose that and have to pay full property taxes on whatever they moved into.
Can old folks even get a mortgage?
I think a primary residence is exempt from capital gains taxation in the U.S.
Home sales remain at crushed levels as the entire housing market has shrunk by about 20% because homeowners with 3% mortgages are neither buying nor selling, and have vanished as demand, and have vanished in equal number as supply, and due to them, sales are down and supply is down in equal measure, and so churn is down.
Realtors are fretting about the drop in market volume because they make commissions off the churn. And for Realtors, it’s not looking good at all.