Carrying a mortgage into retirement is far more common than it used to be, and it works fine when your durable income comfortably covers the payment. A few generations back, people bought relatively inexpensive homes on 30-year loans at low rates, had little reason to refinance, and simply paid them off. Today people work later, live longer, and buy later in life (National Association of Realtors data shows first-time buyers are older than they once were), so a mortgage in retirement is now normal. Our guidance is simple. Once you reach real life stability and can genuinely afford homeownership, buy, then work toward paying the loan down. Avoid the habit of repeatedly refinancing back into a fresh 30-year term or pulling cash out, except in truly extreme situations, because every reset throws away amortization progress you already paid for. The piece that matters most is matching the home to your retirement income. A modest home in a lower-cost metro on a pension and Social Security can work well. Stretching for an expensive entry-level home in a high-cost market on that same income does not. Buy what your durable income supports, aim to own the home free and clear over time, and the mortgage-in-retirement part stops being a problem.