Why are people OBSESSED with owning a house? (incentive, 4%, agents)
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There are still millions of Americans out there who are underwater in their mortgages, stuck in their homes and can't move, paying a rent to the bank.
And there are many millions more who aren't.
Look, just because home ownership isn't for you doesn't mean it isn't for everyone. Nor is renting for everyone. You need to deal with that and move on.
The only thing I would add to the positive side of home ownership that hasn't already been stated is that for some of us, specifically ME, living in an apartment building would be torture. I can't stand other people around me. Making noise. Slamming doors. Walking overhead. Blasting televisions. Blasting 'music'. I need a sense of isolation to feel secure. I do not feel secure in a building with other people. I feel at the mercy of other people's habits. Yuck. And the kind of apartment I could afford would be just as I have described. My house is old and in disrepair, but it is mine (not the bank's). I can do whatever the hell I want and not disturb anyone. I can blast my own music and nobody will be bothered.
(I'm gonna be a real hit in the nursing home.)
However, those who point out that in some markets it is smarter to rent do have a valid point. A house is a pain in the butt and a money pit. But for myself, I'd rather pitch a tent in the woods than live in an apartment building.
There is a tax benefit to owning a house. You get to deduction the mortgage interest off your taxes. Yes, over the years the interest decreases, but you still receive the benefit. You also get to deduct your property taxes from your income taxes. For some people, that's a large sum of money and they don't own a mansion. Taxes are high where I live and I live in a 1700 square foot Cape Cod. I didn't pay a half mill for my house. Unless you're on the lake or have major acreage, there aren't house's that are half a mill where I live.
Why own a house? Why pay someone else's mortgage? Why not be allowed to have a pet? Why get stuck moving when the landlord wants to have their son rent your apartment? Why deal with landlords who don't repair/maintain the property? Why be stuck with off white walls for your entire life and not be able to hang up pictures? Why not be able to plant a garden or some flowers if you want? Why watch the rich get richer? Why get stuck moving every year or two?
At the end of that 30 years (many of us pay our houses off in much less time), you own the house. If you were to rent for that 30 years, you own NOTHING! Might as well set your money on fire. You get the same thing in the end.
No one should have to rent for 30 years, but you should happily rent today and in the next few years until interest rates go back to normal and house prices are cut in half.
Why would anyone buy a house today and pay those inflated prices is beyond me.
Where I live, prices are NOT inflated! They have been stable for years. We never had a boom. We never lost a ton of value because we didn't have a boom. This is true in many markets. We just didn't make the evening news because we didn't have a 600% foreclosure rate come out of nowhere. Foreclosures are pretty rare here.
Interest rates go back to normal? What exactly do you call normal? Rates have fluctuated for decades. I'd rather save money on interest and add that to my monthly mortgage payment. Helps pay the note off sooner thus saving interest in the long run.
Please, only people in the market to buy a house today are inexperienced buyers, young adults buying at the top and destroying their lives with mortgage debt slavery on overpriced housing.
Demand has been crashed everywhere. Americans today can't afford to buy a house in their own country, because homes are overpriced everywhere.
No one is even buying a house today to live in it for 30 years. It's a speculator heaven, get rich quick scheme, so called investment...I personally love that one.
House is a basic shelter, not some investment and wealth generating vehicle.
Has everyone turned insane again?
You really don't know much about the housing market. You can't throw around words like everywhere repeatedly especially because it isn't true! The entire country did not have their housing values crash.
The only people in the market are NOT inexperienced buyers or young adults. I know I bought a house last year. My neighbors bought their house 7 months before me. Neither of us is inexperienced. This is the 3rd house I've owned. I've also gone through the process on 2 others houses and bailed before closing due to numerous issues. Neither my neighbor nor myself are young adults. I wish!
I don't know how you get rich quick on a house that's worth $150K and that's what you pay for it. And the value has been roughly the same for over a decade. That's how it is where I live. it's not like this everywhere, but there are several areas of the state I live in where the values haven't gone up and down like a yo-yo. I don't live in Miami!
To those who think real estate prices are firmly rooted in the laws of supply and demand, these metrics probably look very confusing; demand plunging, supply surging, and prices surging?!? Say what??? But, to those who believe that the past two years has been rooted firmly in unorthodox monetary policy and investing this makes perfect sense. Data such as these are a leading indicator of price decreases on deck. In fact, Fitch put out a recent report noting that based on the historic relationship between home prices and a basket of econometric factors house prices are 17% over valued nationally, 30% in CA. Which means they are probably 1.5x that and is more in-line with my models.
I live less than a mile from the Pacific in one of the best Orange County communities. I also bought when housing prices were much lower than today. I'll take my chances.
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