2 ms·

Housing articles appear on HN quite frequently and the comments are usually quite devisive. The same people that deride owning property as a terribly illiquid i

Housing articles appear on HN quite frequently and the comments are usually quite devisive. The same people that deride owning property as a terribly illiquid investment also complain about instability with regards to rent. Yes a 30 year mortgage may cost you interest expense and yes your down payment is locked up in an illiquid asset buy one of the main things you get is stability in your cost of housing. Your 20 year old self may be fine with moving here or there,telecommuting, etc..buy your 60 year old self on fixed income may be in another boat being forced to move from a community you have been in for 30 years. Buy land...it's the only thing they aren't making more of. Take a RE investment class, learn about valuations, figure out a place where you want to live. As hard as it is to do now...IMAGINE YOUR LIFE AT 60 OR 70. Set yourself up to be in control of your life then and make the immediate gratification sacrifices now.

kazinator 10y ago
> Yes a 30 year mortgage may cost you interest expense and yes your down payment is locked up in an illiquid asset buy one of the main things you get is stability in your cost of housing. A $1000 mortgage, even if variable rate, isn't suddenly going to jump to $2000. I suppose it could happen if this is early in the mortgage (most of the payment is interest and the interest rate suddenly doubles). Unlike rent, interest rates don't go monotonically up, though; they go up and down. Unless it's already at zero, interest has room to go down, too. A mortgage gets cheaper when the interest rate goes down. Won't happen with rent, except in some god forsaken town that is shrinking. (The company closes the mine, and everyone leaves or whatever, and the remaining people practically have to be paid to stay.) That is to say, a mortgage can get cheaper even if you're living in a desirable place where values are appreciating, because the interest rate is linked to national and global finance which isn't related to the real estate dynamics of your particular neck of the woods. Rents will never get cheaper in a place like that.

kazinator 10y ago

> Yes a 30 year mortgage may cost you interest expense and yes your down payment is locked up in an illiquid asset buy one of the main things you get is stability in your cost of housing. A $1000 mortgage, even if variable rate, isn't suddenly going to jump to $2000. I suppose it could happen if this is early in the mortgage (most of the payment is interest and the interest rate suddenly doubles). Unlike rent, interest rates don't go monotonically up, though; they go up and down. Unless it's already at zero, interest has room to go down, too. A mortgage gets cheaper when the interest rate goes down. Won't happen with rent, except in some god forsaken town that is shrinking. (The company closes the mine, and everyone leaves or whatever, and the remaining people practically have to be paid to stay.) That is to say, a mortgage can get cheaper even if you're living in a desirable place where values are appreciating, because the interest rate is linked to national and global finance which isn't related to the real estate dynamics of your particular neck of the woods. Rents will never get cheaper in a place like that.