4 ms·

Renting provides mobility and freedom from the burden of property "ownership" (which is really renting from the bank and state). You shouldn't be so quick to le

Renting provides mobility and freedom from the burden of property "ownership" (which is really renting from the bank and state). You shouldn't be so quick to let your gleaming idealism sully judgement of otherwise reasonable and prudent financial decisions.

bscphil 3y ago
That's an obvious false dichotomy. If everyone who wanted had the choice between renting and owning, and the average landlord made a decent living off of providing maintenance and "deed-holding" services, you might have a point. As things actually stand, most people are squeezed into the rental market and the average landlord makes much more than a decent living through an exploitative process of raising rents on tenants who do not have choices.
- forward1 3y ago
  It is a false dichotomy but it's instead this: people want housing to be both affordable and an investment, whereas those two goals are mutually exclusive.
cj 3y ago
I agree there are benefits to renting, but to really benefit much the landlord can’t be making incredible profits (e.g. it’s not worthwhile to rent long-term if your landlord charges you a 50-100% premium on the landlord’s cost of ownership.) Before buying my first house in 2021, I was paying $2k / month in rent in a 2 family house my landlord bought 2 years prior for $350k. There was another person paying an additional $1k/month in the same house for a total of $3k/mo of total rent for a $350k house the landlord purchased through a LLC the year prior. When I ended up buying a house, the monthly mortgage payments were about the same as rent except the house is 2x larger with 5x more property (on the same street as the apartment I was renting). In other words, for mobility to really be worth the cost of renting, you really gotta be taking advantage of that benefit and moving around a lot. If you’re renting a house like I was for a long period of time, it makes absolutely no sense. Unfortunately, I think most renters do so out of necessity (not able to afford a $75k down payment, for example).
- nunez 3y ago
  I am getting close to affording that kind of downpayment (though my realtor tells me we can get in the market on a much lower percent down), and I'm still hesitating on buying. I dislike the inability to customize the place we live in but also dislike the theoretical lack of mobility and the actual necessity of having to do housework.

bscphil 3y ago

That's an obvious false dichotomy. If everyone who wanted had the choice between renting and owning, and the average landlord made a decent living off of providing maintenance and "deed-holding" services, you might have a point. As things actually stand, most people are squeezed into the rental market and the average landlord makes much more than a decent living through an exploitative process of raising rents on tenants who do not have choices.

forward1 3y ago
It is a false dichotomy but it's instead this: people want housing to be both affordable and an investment, whereas those two goals are mutually exclusive.

cj 3y ago

I agree there are benefits to renting, but to really benefit much the landlord can’t be making incredible profits (e.g. it’s not worthwhile to rent long-term if your landlord charges you a 50-100% premium on the landlord’s cost of ownership.) Before buying my first house in 2021, I was paying $2k / month in rent in a 2 family house my landlord bought 2 years prior for $350k. There was another person paying an additional $1k/month in the same house for a total of $3k/mo of total rent for a $350k house the landlord purchased through a LLC the year prior. When I ended up buying a house, the monthly mortgage payments were about the same as rent except the house is 2x larger with 5x more property (on the same street as the apartment I was renting). In other words, for mobility to really be worth the cost of renting, you really gotta be taking advantage of that benefit and moving around a lot. If you’re renting a house like I was for a long period of time, it makes absolutely no sense. Unfortunately, I think most renters do so out of necessity (not able to afford a $75k down payment, for example).

nunez 3y ago
I am getting close to affording that kind of downpayment (though my realtor tells me we can get in the market on a much lower percent down), and I'm still hesitating on buying. I dislike the inability to customize the place we live in but also dislike the theoretical lack of mobility and the actual necessity of having to do housework.