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If you wait for enough responses you will find people with strong opinions both for and against renting AND owning. No one opinion is more or less valid-usually the opinion comes from personal experience.
I prefer ownership when it's possible. It can be a good investment (although not always). It does offer tax advantages (99% of the time). If I hadn't put 5% down on my first house 9 years ago I wouldn't be nearly as secure as I am today (I have a 50% equity position on my current home). It's the American Dream for a great many of us.
If you are not strapping yourself to do it, rates are low and inventories are high. There are great opportunities for buyers in most price ranges.
Granted, not everyone who has 100% financing is foreclosing, but it's the loose lending standards that go along with 100% financing is a big problem. A - it drove up prices since people could "afford" to buy more than they would with only 80% down and B - it's easier to walk away from a house where the value has dropped when you've got nothing invested in it. Would someone really do that? The CEO of Wachovia seems to think so :
Quote:
Part of one of the challenges is, and we've mentioned this before, a lot of this current losses have been coming out of California and it's -- they've been from people that have otherwise had the capacity to pay, but have basically just decided not to because they feel like they've lost equity, value in their properties, and so in a way, we may have -- it's hard to know right now, but we may have seen somewhat of an acceleration problem loans as people have reached that conclusion and we're just going to have to see how the patterns unfold here
You may be paying more than necessary for rent. We pay $830 for a 1200 SF 2BR in a good community with heat pump for low utilities.
If anyone knew how real estate would do in this turbulent economy, they might also have the numbers to play for Powerball this week.
Things are very uncertain with the dollar falling and an election coming up.
If you're sure you won't be staying permanently, you might try to get a better rent deal and not tie up your money in an asset that may or may not appreciate. A tech bust could send the yuppies running home leaving a flurry of foreclosures behind.
Only a prophet could tell how the economy will behave in the next 5 years.
Hi,
Would you mind sharing which community you live? I am looking for a 2b in/around cary and would love to hear from somebody that lives in the complex. We have been in the same dilemma: buy or rent. We decided to keep renting and move to a better place.
I have been looking for many private owned places, but they are either too expensive, too old or too small (guess you cannot have everything!).
Thank you so much!
Northridge Crossings near Triangle Town Center (near Capital Blvd). A great community.
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