4 ms·
One risk associated with owning that doesn't often get mentioned but that is more relevant these days is your exposure to misgovernance of your local government
by fspeech 12y ago
One risk associated with owning that doesn't often get mentioned but that is more relevant these days is your exposure to misgovernance of your local governments. There were a few scares in the municipal bonds markets in recent years but home buyers should recognize that they are exposed to similar risks. After all it is the taxes they pay that will be needed to pay back the municipal debt. If a city were to get into fiscal troubles police and other public services would get cut first potentially impacting property values, maybe greatly in which case there could be a downward spiral.
- Spooky23 12y agoUnless you're somehow securing multi-year leases, that's a cost that is passing on to you as well. You also need to factor in the value of negative impacts of renting. When you have kids, school selection is driven by location -- and a lease is more ephemeral than a mortgage. You also always need to deal with landlords, who can be good or bad, and often cannot make changes to the property that you would like.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- cstejerean 12y agoYou don't need multi year leases. If anything that would be bad. If I rent and the city I am in goes bankrupt and has to cut public services which in turn affect my quality of life and local property values, I can pick up and move and let the owner of the property deal with the double digit hit on his property value. Meanwhile I can move in to the town next door that doesn't have those problems. The costs are not passed down to me.
- Spooky23 12y agoThat's fine when you're 23. When you have a couple of kids, and chasing the lowest taxes/rents means that you're uprooting them from school and friends, there is a high cost for that. Ever get to know a military brat? It's a hard life.