4 ms·

> Renting is generally cheaper than buying That's not 'generally' true, unless youre cherry picking data or buying expensive houses. If that was true, then lan

> Renting is generally cheaper than buying That's not 'generally' true, unless youre cherry picking data or buying expensive houses. If that was true, then landlords wouldn't be renting their property out. The standard landlord advice (from any real estate book) is to charge more for rent than your mortgage costs to cover unexpected repairs. Also, several deductions for tax, maintenance, repairs, insurance, etc exist making it even cheaper. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/top-ten-tax-deductions-landlords-29497.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/top-ten-tax-deductio... I agree with you that owning a home is expensive and I caution friends from buying a home if they're not sure they want to live there for 5-15 years. The hidden costs are insane. Renting has a mostly stable price without the massive emergency spikes of making roof or foundation repairs.

vecinu 6y ago
> That's not 'generally' true Yes, you're correct, I'm mainly referring to California as that's where I've been living for a good chunk of time. Prop 13 "locks in" your property tax rate with measly 1-2%/year increases and there is barely any new construction, restricting supply. What this means is that a lot of landlords in CA have super low mortgage/property tax costs because they bought a while ago and they can "afford" to charge a low amount of rent because their costs are so low. The biggest factor for me in regards to buying is the mobility that I need, especially while I'm young and uncertain of where I want to settle.