You can borrow against its value or reverse mortgage it for money to fund your retirement. Or as you said, many choose to sell their expensive city homes and retire to a small town with lower cost of living. That usually drives up prices in the nearby, more desirable small towns.

Yes, we've already seen that with people moving to the Maritimes to retire. As such Nfld, NS, NB have the highest average age in Canada.

The traditional path is that you have a bigger house when you have children and downsize when the kids leave the family home. By the time this happens, the house has appreciated in value and you can have the extra value as cash for retirement.

Tom Sellek takes your home.

You sell and use the funds to pay rent to your long term care home until you die.