[kevao]

The "American Dream of Home Ownership" is the single greatest scam ever perpetrated on the public by the financial services industry

Huh? We bought our first house a couple of years ago. Our monthly mortgage payment is essentially what we were paying for renting our apartment. We lived in that apartment for ten years, and in the end had nothing to show for it. The difference now is that a percentage of our monthly payment becomes equity.

Home ownership is a forced savings plan, which is good. And, if you plan correctly, you'll have a paid-off home by the time you retire -- a huge advantage when you're living on a fixed income.

So what's the scam?

[Indrid Cold]

Personally, I never had more disposable cash than when I was a renter. We bought our first house, a 3-bedroom built in 1936 for $34,000, re-did wood floors, painted, re-did plumbing and electrical, put in furnace and appliances. Owned it for 4 years. Now it won't sell (at a reasonable price, anything will sell for $500) and I'm paying 2 mortgages since my job necessitated a move. Say it did sell--I'd have to use the "profit" to pay off the bridge loan I got to put money down on the new house, so the money's still tied up. In fact, I'm not gonna see that "profit" until I stop living in houses, at which point I'm gonna be in a nursing home or dead, so either the state or my descendants get the $$$.

I hate, hate, hate real estate, and granted my current situation may have something to do with that. And I will probably never own the property "free and clear", because 1) it's the cheapest money I'm ever going to borrow, and 2) I can write off the mortgage interest. But where that leaves me, in essence, is renting from the bank with the additional proviso that I'm on the hook for the remaining balance if something terrible occurs (eminent domain, discovery of Indian burial ground on property, etc.)