“Your landlord will be paying off the mtg. with your money - he will own the place, and you will have nothing but reciepts.”
Whereas I will not have had to pay taxes, improvements, utilities (to the extent a house requires), insurance, and will sock that money in savings or investments with a return. The money I save from not paying the above far exceeds the tax break I would get from a mortgage, and with today’s prices, I would still be paying 70% of my income on a house that’s overpriced to begin with, and is dropping in price right now. The “refi out when the rates reset” days are OVER - as is selling a house in a reasonable time frame, for any profit.
Not all renters spend 100% of their income on rent.
“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.”
Then don’t rent.
“Little” houses start at 3-400K in most metropolitan areas - and that price is unreachable by the median income with a traditional 20% down, fixed rate mortgage. Subprime loans are hard to come by now, and even THEY require perfect credit now. What you propose is simply not possible in today’s market - hello, prices are *falling* in almost all markets - and probably won’t be for several years to come. Unless you can afford the mortgage, and can for a long time, and have no plans to sell, fine. Otherwise, forget it, housing is so toxic right now only a fool would buy anytime soon, unless they have to. Renting is far, far, far, cheaper than buying even the crappiest condo in the worst part of town, and in my area, rents are dropping due to the flood of houses being put on the rental market by desperate sellers. I can rent a 3-4 bedroom house for 2k a month, or pay 4-5K for a mortgage, or higher - and that’s in lousy areas like Richmond or Oakland.
Buy anything? LOL. Riiiiiight.
The roaring housing party is over. Your advise is meaningless in respect to the reality on the street, with all due respect. The median income can’t afford “teeny” houses, because they are so jacked up in price you need a voodoo loan to get one - and now, that’s *if* you can get the loan. If you pay attention, houses are falling out of escrow all over the place, because the lenders are tightening up their standards.
The days when what you posted are meaningful are far, far in the future. This is going to take a long time to shake out.
Um...we pay $1400/mo in rent. We could get a similar sized condo, with 10% down and probably be within $100 of what we pay in rent.