3 ms·

Is this news-worthy though? From what I understand this isn't a new development, or has been changing much in the last 100 years. I guess West Germany had a a b

Is this news-worthy though? From what I understand this isn't a new development, or has been changing much in the last 100 years. I guess West Germany had a a bit of a boom of building your own home during the 60s and 70s through the so called "Bausparvertrag", and similar in East Germany after the reunification, but renting is a lot more convenient, and more importantly you don't need to go into debt until you're in your 50s. Of course there's still the clichee of a young family building their own home, but then a few years later the young family falls apart, the house goes back to the bank, and both live their separate lives long and happily everafter as renters ;)

hef19898 3y ago
Germans always rented to larger degrees than others, which explains the difference in certain wealth statistics. As a German, I have no idea why that is, that we tend to rent. That being said, until your 50s, either you are debt, debt offset by property with a certain value, or you pay rent. Either way, you do not live for free. Difference is, once you retire in your 60s, with owned property your living costs actually go down a lot, while rent only keeps coming. Of course, one can do all kind of corporate accounting tricks to explain that even after your mortgae is repaid, you don't live for almost nothing in your house, but that wouod only show a serious lack of financial understanding.
- flohofwoe 3y ago
  Living alone as an old person in the house you built for a whole family when you were young isn't cheap either though, especially now when it's time to upgrade the heating away from gas, isolate the walls and maybe it's also about time to finally fix the roof, it's much easier to complain about all this to your landlord ;)
  - hef19898 3y ago
    All of those costs are factored into your rent so. In fact, those rennovation works are a reason for a landlord to increase rent on existing leases. So you pay for those, always. What you don't pay so, ia rent for property you own. And ince the mortgage is repaid, ideally begore you retire, your monthly costs are the same as if you rented without the rent.
    - flohofwoe 3y ago
      I would think that in a larger multi-family house those costs are quite a bit cheaper 'per-capita' than in a single family house. It evens out for an owned flat in a large house of course, but I guess that's even rarer in Germany than elsewhere (especially outside cities).
  - bluGill 3y ago
    Sure, but if you want to you can sell and move to a smaller place. Most people have emotional attachment to their house - they look at a room and remember that is where their kids took the first step. While this costs them money, emotions like that are valuable.
    - flohofwoe 3y ago
      In some of the more "rural" areas in Germany it's actually not simple to sell a house short of giving it away for free (and even then..), especially when it needs a lot of upgrading to latest energy standards.

hef19898 3y ago

Germans always rented to larger degrees than others, which explains the difference in certain wealth statistics. As a German, I have no idea why that is, that we tend to rent. That being said, until your 50s, either you are debt, debt offset by property with a certain value, or you pay rent. Either way, you do not live for free. Difference is, once you retire in your 60s, with owned property your living costs actually go down a lot, while rent only keeps coming. Of course, one can do all kind of corporate accounting tricks to explain that even after your mortgae is repaid, you don't live for almost nothing in your house, but that wouod only show a serious lack of financial understanding.

flohofwoe 3y ago
Living alone as an old person in the house you built for a whole family when you were young isn't cheap either though, especially now when it's time to upgrade the heating away from gas, isolate the walls and maybe it's also about time to finally fix the roof, it's much easier to complain about all this to your landlord ;)
- hef19898 3y ago
  All of those costs are factored into your rent so. In fact, those rennovation works are a reason for a landlord to increase rent on existing leases. So you pay for those, always. What you don't pay so, ia rent for property you own. And ince the mortgage is repaid, ideally begore you retire, your monthly costs are the same as if you rented without the rent.
  - flohofwoe 3y ago
    I would think that in a larger multi-family house those costs are quite a bit cheaper 'per-capita' than in a single family house. It evens out for an owned flat in a large house of course, but I guess that's even rarer in Germany than elsewhere (especially outside cities).
- bluGill 3y ago
  Sure, but if you want to you can sell and move to a smaller place. Most people have emotional attachment to their house - they look at a room and remember that is where their kids took the first step. While this costs them money, emotions like that are valuable.
  - flohofwoe 3y ago
    In some of the more "rural" areas in Germany it's actually not simple to sell a house short of giving it away for free (and even then..), especially when it needs a lot of upgrading to latest energy standards.