My name is Freedom Is Not Free and I approve of this message...
My reason for buying and not renting is because I have five kids. I can’t always worry that the landlord is going to come by and expect the house to be spotless because he only has one child and that’s how his house is. Plus, I can make any improvements I want. Yes, I read the article. I just wanted to say why I prefer to own.
OK, ‘freedom’. What will you have to show for your money ten years from now?
Your landlord will be paying off the mtg. with your money - he will own the place, and you will have nothing but reciepts.
IMHO, I am totally against renting. Buy a teenie little house - pay it off, sell it, take the equity and buy a bigger house - pay it off, etc. At least it is yours.
OK, ‘freedom’. What will you have to show for your money ten years from now?
Your landlord will be paying off the mtg. with your money - he will own the place, and you will have nothing but reciepts.
IMHO, I am totally against renting. Buy a teenie little house - pay it off, sell it, take the equity and buy a bigger house - pay it off, etc. At least it is yours.
but what's the big deal with a down payment? everyone gets their money. is it just proving that i can save money? hell, i have to make it first! i have very steady income, there just ain't enough of it to save 100K for a down payment.
I think renting is fine if folks are more comfortable with it
owning a home is a lot more than just paying mortgage, taxes and insurance monthly
and they don’t all appreciate like the dickens
Get a better job.
I rent because I am living a lifestyle of my own choosing and that means I don’t make a lot of money, BUT I am happy in work I like AND I have flexibility and time to do the other things I want to do in life.
Therefore, I’ve cut a lot of things from my life. Sure, I’ve missed out on a lot of things, but I’m the envy of my married-couple friends with their mortgages and multiple cars. I’m not against those things, and if I had the cash I’d have them, too.
But some people simply don’t care about that stuff.
I pay a pretty steep rent, but I live in the city, don’t have to worry about a car or the insurance, gas, upkeep, etc.
My landlord of one year has never once stepped into my apartment. In fact, she’s given me a break on raising the rent (the rest of the building is going up) because the previous tenant was a pain and I stepped in.
The one argument I hear over and over is “You’ll have nothing to show” for paying rent, etc.
So what?
I also don’t have the heart attacks, ENDLESS upkeep, expenses, wasted time...
Renting isn’t for everybody, but owning, while something I hope to do someday, isn’t the guarantee of security people wish it were. In many ways, owning is a ridiculous burden that takes up in time and effort and expense any benefit that may appear down the line.
Think about it. If every time there was a spike, and the market fell back down to join the slow, gradual trend up wards line that preceeded the spike, we'd only be paying about 60,000 for a house that sold for 17,000 in the sixties. (an average 12,000 sq. ft. 3 brm bungalow)
(I've had a decent amount of math education, through Calculus II, but never took statistics.)
Do what you want to as long as you can afford it. I subscribe to the Dave Ramsey school of thought. My only debt is my house and I am just a few years away from owning that free and clear.
It just goes to show all real estate is local. If you can find a place that would rent for what the mortgage is *today* then you should be OK.
I bought small and its somewhat comforting to know that If I decided to rent my place out I would make about a 5% profit over the mortgage. I would lose money on maintenance but I wont take a bath..
i’d like to see a graph with home prices vs. gold and i bet it would show that they have pretty much stayed in line with one another. the dollar is falling. i bet exports are gonna start booming.
In most states EVERYONE rents... just from their local taxing authority. Don’t think so? Just try to get away with not paying your yearly rental payment and see if you still have a home.
As far as buying vs renting.... in the end it really is a matter of your personal choice. ALL things considered, except for the occasional value blip, both in the end are about equal.
The decision is about how and when you want to use your money.
This is a really interesting topic...central point is that Median Income has not kept up with Median House prices..
During the past 20 to 30 years there has been a slowly developing problem in that incomes have not kept up with prices..While the Fed kept the tight lid on wages (income) and prices, and that kept inflation in check, over the years, prices slipped out of the control box and went through the roof-—everything from groceries to health insurance to auto repairs, you name it..now since a home is the average person’s largest ‘investment’ they figure that the home must increase in value in order to keep up with the huge increases in prices all around them..We average joes understood that—the Fed did not..and now homeowners who want to sell are paying the price..best strategy is to stay put for the time being and let the market forces bring the prices down on homes...it will take the top off the bubble, but it still will not bring house prices down to near the median incomes...should say—down to the average ‘net’ median income...Incomes need to rise more- and the Tax Code, especially the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax-cuts in at $70,000 Income) should also be adjusted to give relief to the working people in this country...and to think the Dems want to raise taxes to pay for ever increasing costly universal health care...
Seattle’s median home price shot up over 500K this past month.
They figured that a single person whould have to have an average salary of 120,000 a year to be able to handle the mortgage payment. That’s fine, except the average income for seattle is less than half of that.
My rent is 1/8 my income should I care?
Rent is throwing your money away. Best to buy your house and pay it off quickly. Once it is paid off, you can live in a nice house for a couple hundred a month for the taxes.
So does this mean average (median if you will) residential property taxes are also going down in rough proportion to home prices going down?
Very doubtful. We’re now going to get the worst of both worlds
I agree with the article. I own a home which I have not lived in yet as I am currently living overseas, (it’s rented out to cover expenses). Where I live now property and homes are sky high and I choose to rent. I’ve been living here for 12 years and probably will be here 4-5 years more. Recently I considered buying a home. A nice little 2200 sq.ft. with a separate rental included in the basement. Only $800,000. I’m single and have a take home of about $5000 a month. Even if I mortgaged my home in the states and made a down payment of $200,000 or so my monthly payments would still be about $4500, take away the rental income and it’s about $3500 a month, plus $1500 on the additional mortgage in the states. How can I afford to live in a home here under these conditions. My take home, which I don’t consider to be too bad, is equal only to what my house payments would be. Good deal. Alternatively I choose to rent for $1300 a month a living space almost equal to what I could own for $5000 a month.