Conducting repairs that help to weatherize your home, not only helps reduce your high energy bills by making your home more energy efficient, it can help you feel more comfortable and safe in your home by reducing drafts and damp.
While in the Bay Area, we don’t always have such extreme winter weather to contend as in other parts of the country, there are measures we can all take to help keep our homes comfortable and safe during the winter months. These types of repairs include:
As winter approaches it is a great time to get those repairs done that you may not have had the time or resources to address. Those on fixed incomes especially may find it challenging to address these larger, but critical, home improvements. And those in that category continues to grow. The number of households headed by seniors will expand dramatically. Practically all household growth from 2020-2030 and most from 2030-2040 will be accounted for by seniors as Americans continue to age.*
In our Home Preservation program, which provides critical home repairs for long-time, low income homeowners, the average age of the homeowners we typically help in San Francisco’s Bayview is 65. They are retired teachers aides, nursing assistants, postal workers — all of whom own their own homes but who are also living on low fixed incomes.
As adults are healthier and living longer, they are able to live independently for longer periods of time. This means that they are living alone for longer periods as well, potentially increasing the risks of injuries from falling.*
The US housing stock is older than at any time ever recorded. The Great Recession sent new construction rates to historic lows, and the useful lives of homes are increasing. In 2021, the median age of owner occupied homes reached 41 years, up from 35 years a decade earlier and just 31 years in 2001.**
In 2021, nearly 6 percent of Black homeowners and 5 percent of Hispanic homeowners were living in inadequate housing—well above the 3 percent share for white homeowners.**