Posted on 11/12/2015 11:23:52 PM PST by Up Yours Marxists
OWNING your own house is as much the Australian dream as the American dream, and it's one that feels increasingly out of reach for many.
But when one user on Quora pondered whether it was ultimately better to rent or own your own home, blogger and investor James Altucher penned this highly controversial response:
I am sick of me writing about this. Do you ever get sick of yourself? I am sick of me.
But every day I see more propaganda about the American Dream of owning the home.
I see codewords a $15 trillion dollar industry uses to hypnotise its religious adherents to BELIEVE.
Lay down your money, your hard work, your lives and loves and debt, and BELIEVE!
But I will qualify: if someone wants to own a home, own one. There should never be a judgment. I'm the last to judge. I've owned two homes. And lost two homes.
If were to write an autobiography called: "My life - 10 miserable moments" owning a home would be two of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
That’s not the American dream, that’s the dream of every free person. Usually those in North America take that more seriously, but they are all over the world.
God created us to be free. We are all born with a desire for freedom.
Depends where you are in the US, but I was looking at real estate in Texas and a few other spots and I couldn’t believe how cheap it all was. That being said, I base it off income, so it would depend on what one does. I am an electrical in oil and gas, and I’ve found pay to be pretty consistent in different areas.
In northern Alberta, lots of trades can make more than doctors. You work long hard hours and take risks and deal with the weather, but the compensation is usually good.
Then what they do is take more tax and drive up costs of real estate to offset the more you make, so I guess no matter what one does, the game is rigged.
Just a brief analysis...
30 yr mortgage rates run about 3.5%.
Knock a third off of that for the tax deduction.
Then factor in inflation,
and you’re probably making money on the loan.
Owning VS Renting calculator:
http://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html
HOWEVER...there is one thing that is very often left out of the decision-making process...your time.
You have to figure the amount of your time that will be spent doing maintenance and rehab. Then double that amount. Then add another 10%. A personal home will suck time out of your life like nothing you've ever seen. That's time that could be spent with your wife, your kids, or just yourself with a personal hobby.
As someone that has "invested" an incredible amount of time in our current home...I'm quite handy...at this stage in my life, I wish I had that time back.
When you rent, you are just buying the property for
someone else.
When you rent from ME, you’re buying my investment for me.
However, the government under Obama, and more specifically Dodd-Frank, destroyed the ability of small investors to provide rentals for people who prefer to rent.
Good for you.
It's not the house...but the veggie and herb gardens...fruit trees, chickens, and if you have a bit more land goats for milk cheese meat or a couple of pigs..(think bacon)
According to “inflation calculator” 3 cents in 1932 is worth 47 cents today. So, postage is actually cheaper today excluding other considerations. And, how many practically free emails can a person send today, bills paid online today which actually bring the relative cost of postage way down... You need a better illustration to show the wiemarization of the economy.
The ability to live in an independent structure devoid of fellow apartment dwellers is worth any level of financial strain.
Accelerate your payments to pay the mortgage off early. That significantly reduces to interest you pay and the peace of mind of outright ownership. This works like a champ.
“I’m impressed by a couple things in your post.”
Good lets see your numbers. I’m just average Joe but you
seem to be way more informed than I am and can do a
more thorough analysis of the long term cost of a home.
As for rent, what is rent on a $240,000 home?
I don't have any idea what a 240k home rents for since I am not in the rental market. My question to you would be why do you think the landlord doesn't have the same costs as a buyer? Ever since I've been in the market either renting or buying it has always been true that the rent I was paying was almost the same as what I would've paid for a mortgage. The issues that I first encountered some 40 years ago was obtaining the down payment. One thing that is different is that over time my payments went up as a renter, but once I had a mortgage (there were no adjustables when I bought) the payments were essentially stable with the changes only being in the cost of the insurance and/or taxes. But I never had any vary more than a hundred dollars over the life of the loan and when I added a couple dollars a month I paid them off earlier. So IF your premise is that there is a marginal difference between owning and renting I disagree. If I've misinterpreted your position, sorry.
The author had two home and LOST two homes?? What an IDIOT!! He doesn’t know ANYTHING.....who would listen to him?
The guy sounds a bit psychotic. He says he’s the last one to judge, right in the middle of a rant against the whole concept.
$100,000.00 house?
I haven’t seen one of those in about 25 years.
.
The concept of borrowing to finance your home isn't a new concept, not by a long shot. What's new is the unrealistic hope/dream that we can buy a house and "trade up" after just a few years and make money doing so.
It drives me nuts when everyone says "I bought a house 2 years ago, and now I'm losing money because the market's going down". How are you "losing money" unless your livelihood is in flipping houses or something. For the average person, homes aren't meant to be short-term investments... if you think in the long term, you will almost always come out ahead in the end.
A: Back where they properly belong?
Yeah, yeah, dream long since dead as you expertly posted (try telling SOME, even around here, let alone the ‘average Joe’).
Option #1 doesn’t exist any longer
It’s now between:
Living in a home owned by the bank via mortgage is a great evil.
Living in a home owned by the govt via property taxes is a greater evil.
Still, don’t confuse the two.
True.
Mortgage is still a real avoidable option though.
Property taxes may be largely unavoidable, but can be tolerably mitigated with careful selection. Obviously location adjusts the property tax rate. Notable, however, is that foregoing a mortgage will likely result in you paying less for the house and thus less in taxes (being a percentage of assessed value).
Property taxes should be eliminated.
I recently sold a house and am in the process of buying a new house. The new regulations concerning appraisals are so screwed up I don’t see how real estate can ever appreciate.
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