6 ms·

Owning a home is preferable though. "You're either paying your own or someone else's mortgage." Edit: clearly one quote cannot capture the complexity of life.

Owning a home is preferable though. "You're either paying your own or someone else's mortgage." Edit: clearly one quote cannot capture the complexity of life. However, should I ever own a home, I'd be happy to let you guys pay for my mortgage.

cudgy 4y ago
I might pay your mortgage if comparable rents will cover it. There’s no guarantee that will be the case, and you could be stuck with a house you can’t sell or rent for more than the mortgage, taxes, insurance, hoa fees, hoa assessments, lawncare, gutter cleanings, pesticide, termite service and bond, replacement hvacs and appliances, roof replacements, exterior paint, interior paint, carpet, wall repairs, toilet issues, plumbing leaks, frozen pipes, squirrel and rodent damage, damage from tenants, vacant months, legal fees for evictions, and the risk of eviction moratoriums, earthquake damage, fires, etc.
swatcoder 4y ago
"You're either rooted with high inertia and volatile maintenance costs or you're buying personal flexibility and medium-term expense stability." Owning is a smart place to park money when you're sure you're settling down for a long while and can be a good investment at other times, but renting is "preferable" quite often too. People get very caught up in black and white thinking about this and it leads to a lot of counterproductive decisions and frustration.
it_citizen 4y ago
That sentence really fail to capture the complexity of the situation. « you’re either paying for your own plus more than a third in interests, plus strata, plus local taxes, plus maintenance or someone else’s mortgage which let you put your money elsewhere, live debt free, without the hassle of maintaining the place and the ability to move easily when new opportunities knock on your door » I am not saying renting is better, but there is a different answer for everyone’s situation.
pwinnski 4y ago
"You're either paying your own repair and maintenance expenses or someone else is." As someone who has been hit by a perfect storm of expensive repairs, I wish I were still renting.
- karmakurtisaani 4y ago
  Consider it like this: if you paid on average $2000 per month for 10 years, you'd have paid $240,000 to the landlord and never see any of that money ever again. That should cover a couple of expensive repairs, no? Besides, repairs directly increase the value of your property, so there's that.
  - jedberg 4y ago
    If you wanted to buy that same house, your mortgage would be about $2200/mo, PLUS property taxes. And in the first ten years of the mortgage, it's almost all interest. So instead of a landlord you're paying the bank to rent your property from them, but now you have to maintain it. And repairs almost never increase the value of your property -- usually they just return it to expected value. When you sell a house, it's assumed that the plumbing and electrical work, and that's baked into the price. If they don't work, you have to make them work. The only upside is that you get to keep the appreciation in the land value. Check this out: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal... Basically, in the most expensive markets, financially it almost always makes sense to rent instead of own, assuming you invest the money you save by renting. Owning makes sense for non-financial reasons, like having more control over your living environment and a sense of place.
    - karmakurtisaani 4y ago
      Good point. One of my assumptions is that the rent would not be much cheaper than the mortgage payments (plus maintenance). Of course that might not be true, and in that case you'd indeed end up paying much more than you pay when renting. However, when renting, you have to cover the same maintenance cost + interest that the actual owner is paying - why else would they rent the place out? (Ok, maybe you can time the market or have another kind of fluke, but can you really count on that?) Thanks for the link! I need to give this a deeper look, as I'm currently considering my options.

cudgy 4y ago

I might pay your mortgage if comparable rents will cover it. There’s no guarantee that will be the case, and you could be stuck with a house you can’t sell or rent for more than the mortgage, taxes, insurance, hoa fees, hoa assessments, lawncare, gutter cleanings, pesticide, termite service and bond, replacement hvacs and appliances, roof replacements, exterior paint, interior paint, carpet, wall repairs, toilet issues, plumbing leaks, frozen pipes, squirrel and rodent damage, damage from tenants, vacant months, legal fees for evictions, and the risk of eviction moratoriums, earthquake damage, fires, etc.

swatcoder 4y ago

"You're either rooted with high inertia and volatile maintenance costs or you're buying personal flexibility and medium-term expense stability." Owning is a smart place to park money when you're sure you're settling down for a long while and can be a good investment at other times, but renting is "preferable" quite often too. People get very caught up in black and white thinking about this and it leads to a lot of counterproductive decisions and frustration.

it_citizen 4y ago

That sentence really fail to capture the complexity of the situation. « you’re either paying for your own plus more than a third in interests, plus strata, plus local taxes, plus maintenance or someone else’s mortgage which let you put your money elsewhere, live debt free, without the hassle of maintaining the place and the ability to move easily when new opportunities knock on your door » I am not saying renting is better, but there is a different answer for everyone’s situation.

pwinnski 4y ago

"You're either paying your own repair and maintenance expenses or someone else is." As someone who has been hit by a perfect storm of expensive repairs, I wish I were still renting.

karmakurtisaani 4y ago
Consider it like this: if you paid on average $2000 per month for 10 years, you'd have paid $240,000 to the landlord and never see any of that money ever again. That should cover a couple of expensive repairs, no? Besides, repairs directly increase the value of your property, so there's that.
- jedberg 4y ago
  If you wanted to buy that same house, your mortgage would be about $2200/mo, PLUS property taxes. And in the first ten years of the mortgage, it's almost all interest. So instead of a landlord you're paying the bank to rent your property from them, but now you have to maintain it. And repairs almost never increase the value of your property -- usually they just return it to expected value. When you sell a house, it's assumed that the plumbing and electrical work, and that's baked into the price. If they don't work, you have to make them work. The only upside is that you get to keep the appreciation in the land value. Check this out: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal... Basically, in the most expensive markets, financially it almost always makes sense to rent instead of own, assuming you invest the money you save by renting. Owning makes sense for non-financial reasons, like having more control over your living environment and a sense of place.
  - karmakurtisaani 4y ago
    Good point. One of my assumptions is that the rent would not be much cheaper than the mortgage payments (plus maintenance). Of course that might not be true, and in that case you'd indeed end up paying much more than you pay when renting. However, when renting, you have to cover the same maintenance cost + interest that the actual owner is paying - why else would they rent the place out? (Ok, maybe you can time the market or have another kind of fluke, but can you really count on that?) Thanks for the link! I need to give this a deeper look, as I'm currently considering my options.