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Renting in my area is 1/3 cheaper than buying...also a no-brainer.
We keep looking for a seller who actually wants to sell their home...as opposed to sellers finding a sucker who will make their dreams come true paying bubble prices.
Go to Partick.net for the latest in Housing News.
The housing crash is a long, long way from the bottom. In the meantime, it's comforting to know the housing bailout and $8,000 tax credit is benefiting IRS Agents, illegal aliens and 4 year old children
1) Both my my parent's families lost their respective homes to foreclosure, during the Great Depression. One of the families actually lived out of their car, for several years.
Both of my parents were risk adverse to home ownership and therefore rented for the rest of their lives, in the same city. Had they been able to overcome their fears, they would have owned one or more properties, outright. Instead, they had cancelled checks, in a box.
2) Spent time with a dear family friends, last weekend. They had recently achieved the status of having rented the same large apartment, for the past 25 years. One of them mentioned how being renters they were grateful they had not lost any money in the housing market.
There is no one size fits all, best response. Home values depend upon supply and demand which changes, over time.
I can totally relate to your second point. I know a few people who have rented for nearly 30 years and they have nothing to show for it.
I recently learned a relative of mine bought a 3 family home in the 70s for $10,000. He could not deal with the tenants and sold the home a few years later. Homes in the area now sell for $600,000. He could have lived rent free and rented the other two apartment for at least $1500 to $1800 each.
If I had that gig, I would quit my job and be a full time property manager. All that equity; the possibilities are endless. Damn!
Renting in my area is 1/3 cheaper than buying...also a no-brainer.
We keep looking for a seller who actually wants to sell their home...as opposed to sellers finding a sucker who will make their dreams come true paying bubble prices.
Go to Partick.net for the latest in Housing News.
The housing crash is a long, long way from the bottom. In the meantime, it's comforting to know the housing bailout and $8,000 tax credit is benefiting IRS Agents, illegal aliens and 4 year old children
Why on earth would you ever consider buying then?
I've been a reader of patrick.net for a couple of years, even submitted articles for his site that's been published there. Trouble is that Patrick has absolutely no background in real estate and all he does is simply compiles a bunch of RE articles and posts them on his site. He is also a far left liberal that wants everything "free." (his words, not mine). Oh, and he lives in CA, the most bubble-icious state in the nation. So of course he has an agenda....
His rent vs own calculator is pretty handy, though, which helped us get off the fence and buy.
Yes. Don't want to answer to a landlord anymore, that's just me. Also, I would probably be able to buy into an even more elite neighborhood since most sellers are competing against foreclosures.
I'm a fence sitter. Sold in a market that was down about 20% and moved to a market that is more stable, but the price point we are looking at is down about 10%.
I'm sitting for several reasons. The first is that we are very comfortable in our rental and the rent is lower than what our mortgage will be. Second - now that we are in the rental, the kids are in school and have friends in the area, so we are looking to stay in the same "two block radius", so our market is very small. Third is that we plan to stay put for some time here and I love older homes, so we will wait for the perfect home to come on the market.
But forth is the biggest reason. Uncertainty. The American culture is all about no patience. Although it took about 6 years to get us into this housing bubble, we want it to be over yesterday. Why not wait to buy a home? It is a big investment and I am guessing it will take at least one more year (if not more) for things to even out. If I am wrong, so what? I buy a home that has appreciated by 5%, but my monthly expenses are lower in the rental, so I consider it a wash. But if I buy and the market continues to decline, I have lost real money - my downpayment.
Renting in my area is 1/3 cheaper than buying...also a no-brainer.
We keep looking for a seller who actually wants to sell their home...as opposed to sellers finding a sucker who will make their dreams come true paying bubble prices.
Go to Partick.net for the latest in Housing News.
The housing crash is a long, long way from the bottom. In the meantime, it's comforting to know the housing bailout and $8,000 tax credit is benefiting IRS Agents, illegal aliens and 4 year old children
And to add to what mill creek mom said, Patrick takes only those articles that support HIS cause and post them. His website is a joke. Kind of like some of the posters on here, always posting one article after another of someone else's data and information, with little value, other than they found an opinion and prediction they agree with.
Amerifree, you are the one who is naive if you believe CA is a long way from bottom. And contrary to your statement, it is far from being full of sellers trying to find a sucker. The only sucker here, seems to be those with opinions like this. My guess would be you can't buy, not that you don't want to. And I'd also question the tactics of the rent/own chart. Rarely does it compare apples to apples. Often if your renting a 2bd., 2bth. apt., you'll likely find comparable data if you try to buy a 2bd, 2bth, same size home in the SAME area. I challenge you to pretend that the rent is 1/3 cheaper if you do an honest comparison! Most compare that same small apt. with buying a much bigger and better area home. Of course a 4bd, 2bth home is going to cost more, especially if you put NO money down. Rents in CA are terribly high as well, just like housing. If your rent is 1/3cheaper as the home you aspire to buy, then bets are on that the house is a much different package than your apt. Kinda like saying a fake ROLEX is cheaper than a real one.......of course it is.......not the same watch!
Renting in my area is 1/3 cheaper than buying...also a no-brainer.
We keep looking for a seller who actually wants to sell their home...as opposed to sellers finding a sucker who will make their dreams come true paying bubble prices.
Go to Partick.net for the latest in Housing News.
The housing crash is a long, long way from the bottom. In the meantime, it's comforting to know the housing bailout and $8,000 tax credit is benefiting IRS Agents, illegal aliens and 4 year old children
The majority of the people who are benefiting from this tax credit are first time home buyers. Why focus on the negative? Fraud is everywhere. What about Wall street and the banks? It is comforting to know this tax credit is helping people secure their future. There is nothing hotter than a well maintained paid off piece of property. We can not entirely depend on just investments like 401ks because big brother can wipe us out in a blink of an eye. Properties do not depreciate to zero.
I think renting can be great, at least it was for us. Three years ago, we sold a house on the east coast and relocated to the country's interior for a new job. Even though we were moving to familiar territory, we just weren't sure where we wanted to live or if the job would work out long-term. A year prior, we had moved cross-country for another job, and we immediately bought a house. The new job didn't work out, and my spouse looked for a new position. An offer came quickly, but it was in yet another state. By that time, we had sunk a huge chunk of money into renovating a house that we would never get back, plus we had to find a buyer in a slowing market. When we sold the house, we walked away with about $40k less equity than we had when we bought it the previous year. It was a painful lesson that we were in no hurry to repeat, so we parked our remaining equity in a jumbo CD and paid rent on a very nice house in our new city with the interest.
A year came and went, but we still weren't ready to purchase. Our landlord was happy to have us sign a new 12-month lease and actually lowered our rent by $100. We packed away money like crazy. Toward the end of our second year, we were convinced we could make a go of things in our new city and committed to a purchase after a long search for the right house in the right neighborhood. We couldn't be happier with the way things worked out. Tactical renting is a good thing!
We sold our house last month and are renting temporarily until we find our "next" house. I cannot wait to be back in a house and not a crappy apartment...I would much rather pay $3k every month on a mortgage than $1500 on rent for a stupid crappy apartment.
That said, we do toss around ideas about relocation, etc. just because right now we're in a position where we easily can (no house to sell!). No real plans to do so, though.
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He could have lived rent free and rented the other two apartment for at least $1500 to $1800 each. 
