Home ownership, that is. Good LORD.
Even if we somehow saved enough money (it would take longer than our lifetimes, I’m sure) or won the lottery or something, we couldn’t even afford the taxes, much less the insurance. Oh, well. There are upsides to renting. A few examples:
If something goes wrong, all you have to do is pick up the phone - you don’t have to fix it yourself.
…
Okay, that’s all I’ve got.
Chalk one up for the Burbs: Affordable housing, land & public schools!
Burbs schmurbs. I’ve got some more for you:
There are a LOT of hidden costs in buying/maintaining a house. In the burbs, a mortgage payment may be less than a lease, but total costs are (almost) always going to be more. Unless you want to live somewhere where no-one would want to live.
Investment-wise, the stock market far out-performs the housing market.
Sure, your rent $$ is just an expense, but if you can invest the rest you are saving w/o the additional costs of home ownership…
It’s also hard when you live in a place where property values have gone up SO much recently, and you might know people that are sitting pretty because they got in before things went crazy. But markets balance themselves out eventually.
…..Problem with living in a “desirable” place. You know, because cheap cities suck, right
So, move back to TEXAS!
yes, but. . . .somehow, somewhere, the quality of living totally feels better when you OWN it.
i too want another house.
To Daniel’s comment: Actually, my wife and I put lots of those “hidden” costs into our mortgage payment (some closing, a “point,” tax payment, etc.) and we are paying less per month than it costs to rent an apartment in our town (and they have about 3/4 the square footage). Hence, there wouldn’t be any “savings” to invest.
And, as a pastor, my housing allowance not only affords me a tax cut, but also an equivalent salary deduction (hence, I “benefit” twice). This more than covers basic maintainence & repairs.
So, in my case, it is not an investment, really. It’s the wisest course of action.
And, there are also some non-financial benefits. I can listen to my music loud without disturbing anyone else. I can park my car inside if I want. I don’t have to rent to “store” things. I can have lots of people over (and, working with teens, it happens a lot). We have the ability to go with a “guest” room. I live in the community I minister in. Stuff like that you can’t really put a price tag on.
So, the suburbs ain’t all bad. There are plenty of benefits…
…and, frankly, I’d rather live “urban.” Ask Kristen. She knows. But depending on which burb, it can be a pretty good (and wise) set up.
I like the thought that if we want to move anywhere, everywhere, we don’t have to worry about selling our house first. That freedom sense.
i also like the idea that when something bad happens, you can just call someone to fix it. the downside of an apartment is you can’t do renovations, like, to make it more eco-friendly or if you hate the kitchen (i guess maybe you could w/ landlord approval). and you usually can’t have much of a garden.
re: brent’s positives: luckily certain apartments you could still have a guest room and storage, and if you had cool neighbors you can be noisy and have lots of people over (our last apartment we had a general “understanding” amongst all the tenants that we wouldn’t complain if they wouldn’t complain). if you find cool ones.
of course the optimistic hippy alternative is to buy a bigger house but with more people and cram in intentional living style. or you could always rent a house, which is what we’re doing right now.
sadly still not very possible in the bay, however. maybe the market will crash :).