4 ms·

> The point is that almost all Americans pay rent or a mortgage in order to have a roof. Well that’s just false. About ~40% of U.S. homes are mortgage-free.[1]

• gramakri 7y ago
  You may be right but this article was written in 2014
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  • oefrha 7y ago
    Oh didn’t check; (2014) should be added to the title. That said, the Bloomberg article I linked to has stats going back to 2006; the percentage of mortgage-free homes in 2014 is hardly different from today, and I bet some properties were cheaper (inflation adjusted) back then.
    • prophesi 7y ago
      Regardless, 40% of mortgage-free home-owners are not a majority. The actual majority of Americans _are_ paying a mortgage or rent. The author should replace "almost everyone" with "mostly everyone." That said, the stats are likely inflated due to the fact that people aren't able to buy a house post-education like with the previous generation. They're stuck paying high rent prices with dead-end jobs.
      • oefrha 7y ago
        TFA: almost all Americans... Me: That’s just false.
        • prophesi 7y ago
          It's an absurd nitpick and still upholds the article's original point that you need to learn about one's living situation before making comparisons due to America's decentralized governance.
          • oefrha 7y ago
            It’s not absurd to point out that the picture painted by TFA that almost all Americans spend a large proportion of income on rent or mortgage is not true for a significant chunk of the population, especially considering investment/skilled worker immigrants typically earn above average. If you earn 10x while having to pay 20% of that as rent or mortgage, you do still end up with 8x. Not to mention non-home owners are also prevalent in most of the developing world.
            • prophesi 7y ago
              And this "significant chunk" of the population assuredly would not include one's Armenian relative who immigrated to America. As stated in the article, most Armenians are likely home-owners due to the collapse of the USSR, so it's irrelevant that renting is prevalent globally. Again, I agree the author shouldn't have said "almost all" Americans, but it's still a silly nitpick in context to the rest of the article. Rent/Mortgage is just a slice of the pie of costs that one may have to pay in decentralized America.
              • oefrha 7y ago
                > And this "significant chunk" of the population assuredly would not include one's Armenian relative who immigrated to America. Where does that "assuredly" come from? If you just immigrated (non-investment), probably not. If you're like my immigrant relatives who immigrated 20 years ago -- just run-of-mill Silicon Valley electrical engineers, they have been mortgage-free for a long time, and they live right next to 1 Infinite Loop where cost of living is pretty damn high. This article is overall fairly objective but the hardships described in the housing section seem quite exaggerated, from "Armenians are sometimes under the impression that lots of Americans own houses, too. This is a misapprehension; ..." onward. (For one thing, unless I'm terribly mistaken, those who do own houses generally own better houses than Armenian apartments; same for those who financed houses.) To be fair, I can understand the exaggeration, as this article targets those who are "righteously indignant about stingy relatives in the US". (Which btw I don't understand -- why are rich relatives obligated to help the poor? I guess it's a cultural thing.)
• seibelj 7y ago
  Also many people have subsidized rent... my tenant is on disability and doesn’t pay for rent, food, electricity, gas, or subway pass, and gets $600 per month spending money, which is all provided by the government. She has asthma
  • amiga_500 7y ago
    You are the one who is subsidized.
    • seibelj 7y ago
      No the one who doesn’t pay rent is subsidized
      • amiga_500 7y ago
        The entire system is set up to funnel economic activity into land then onto usurers.
        • seibelj 7y ago
          Well my tenant is one person who beat the system! Never has to work, period.
          • amiga_500 7y ago
            And their income goes to you, who does hardly anything as a landlord.
            • seibelj 7y ago
              Other than all the upkeep, legal risk, risk of loss in value, having to deal with harassment from know-nothing internet commenters...
          • distances 7y ago
            What the parent is saying though is that your tenant is only the middle man transferring wealth from the society to you; you are the one who ends up with the money in this scenario.
• phaemon 7y ago
  Remember this is written from an Armenian perspective, so over 60% renting or mortgage is going to seem very high compared to 4% in Armenia.
• duffmancd 7y ago
  Note that that 40% is of owner-occupiers (which is not clearly stated in the article). Which make up roughly half of all households. Renters (whether or not they own another house) are excluded from the analysis.
• Retric 7y ago
  That 40% does not mean 40% of the US population is mortgage or rent free. Few people care if their renting from someone that has a mortgage or not. Currently ~67% of the population owns or lives with someone that owns their home, and 30% of those homes are mortgage free. So, ~80% of the population has a mortgage or pays rent, which IMO fit’s almost all just fine. PS: Many people are paying rent or have a mortgage while owning a home, but that’s less of a problem.
• beezle 7y ago
  Even a home for which the mortgage is paid must still pay property taxes, order 1.5% give or take. There are maintenance costs as well, assuming they wish the home to not decay.