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I Totally agree with Mathjak107, I think that when people tell you that "Home Ownership Is The Way To Go" is "SOOOOO Over Rated". I have been a Home Owner for over 31 years now and must have spent AT LEAST OVER $200,000.00 CASH from my pocket paying [For] or on this house in one way or another, Sidewalks, Toilets, Lights, Plumbing, Windows, Doors, Siding, etc. It would be so much easier Renting and then Investing elsewhere like maybe the stock market or a Roth IRA. I am almost 60 and am soon going to sell my home and start to rent and keep the rest and Invest.
As a multiple home owner, I personally hate it when I see a house down the street being rented. Because renters dont care as much about taking care of their property or their neighborhood. Renters are transient.
My houses, I can sell whenever I want and then take that money and move, wherever I want. The work that I put into maintaining the houses will be returned to me when I sell.
It takes home ownership and established residents that care to make a neighborhood look great and feel welcoming, which is appealing to buyers and INCREASES value.
Rentals don't create nice, safe, well maintained neighborhoods. Most renters don't stay in the same home or don't care about the property values. Why would they??? Don't they want to rent because they are lazy and would prefer another to maintain the property they live in?
Home ownership=pride and financial security. Renting=transient and low credit score.
Interesting question, so I looked it up. Couldn't find anything too recent, but did find this study from 2006 that finds the average credit scores of renters are 55 points lower than those of homeowners:
it is a flawed survey because renters consist of very very poor and very very wealthy folks all mixed together.
homeowners do not usually include those low income and poverty income folks in the mix diminishing the renters that are in a totally different catagory.
it is not comparing apples to apples unless you took median incomes of homeowners and compared it to the same median income of renters.
I wanted to see how many people bought a home, than after many years, you sold it and will never buy another home.
Share your reasons why?
Why am I asking? I'm trying to decide if buying is practical for me.
My stats:
Single
Child free( I don't plan on having any)
40y/o
OMG I am in the same situation as OP right now. I am 37 years old, single, never married, and I don't have any kids. I have rented apartments for 11 years in the same city while working at the same company full-time. I am thinking of buying a house for which I am preapproved, but I never actually applied for the loan or taken out the mortgage. I didn't even select the house yet.
I'd imagine being upset in 8 more years if I was still renting. I'll try not to pay for more house than I need and get good bang for my buck, but I still want to own... rents are rising and even if I pay a bit more out of pocket every month, deals like the south dakota home buyer tax credit combined with USDA mortgages and low rates making buying right now a no brainer... 3 people and a young kid just moved in below me after years of silence... that is a motivator as well!
I see a major economic event coming which will result in either major inflation or a deflationary setup with super low rates.. it's possible I could be missing out on even better deals to come .. we have multiple bubbles right now in the stock and bond markets thanks to fed QE... housing is arguably overpriced depending on the area as well... can't spend your whole live waiting for something that might never happen though... rates are 'low enough' right now... at least if rates go up and we see major inflation from a crisis on confidence, you have a fixed payment that can be more easily paid off as time goes by...
Do yourself a favor and read a book on home inspection and look at dozens of open houses before buying... look for stuff like updated windows, electrical, furnace, get a look in the attic for leaks, insulation.... look at the sewer line if you are buying an older house and make sure it's PVC.. roof flashing, shingle quality, water pipe material, natural gas heating which is far cheaper than electric or propane, etc. etc... get to know local real estate price trends and try to snap up deals right when they hit the market...
If a house is outside city limits not connected to city sewer and suddenly gets annexed into the city, you must pay to have their sewer and water lines hooked up. Just another of many things to consider when looking at a property.
I've rented, owned, currently renting again but am now in the process of building a home.
I've rented for the last 4 years at such cheap rent (started at $615, utilities included, now $725) that there's no way I could have owned for anywhere near as cheaply. My fixed monthly costs on a home (utilities, taxes, insurance, maintenance) would have been more than my rent.
That being said, if I continue renting, my rent will forever increase whereas my mortgage will not. I know owning will be more expensive, but to me it's a quality of life increase that's worth it. And after 15 years or less, I'll never have a housing payment again, whereas renting I always will with nothing to show for it.
taxes in many desireable areas can run more than many pay for rent so just having a mortgage free home does not mean a thing.
back when i first started raising a family homes were 40k. the fact that mortgage is payed off today is a mere pittance compared to monthly costs and taxes of 15k plus on that very same home so the fact is after 15 years or 30 years you may not have a mortgage but you certainly have house payments of other sorts that can eventually out pace what your mortgage was..
many areas renting can be cheaper than those payments."
as far as nothing to show? well if you were here i would show you my account statement from what renting and investing left us with after paying rent vs what that silly old house is worth.
of course not everyone has the stomach or knowledge to successfully invest but the premise that you end up with nothing as a renter or a paid off mortgage leaves you with little housing costs as a general statement is flat out wrong.
Last edited by mathjak107; 09-06-2014 at 03:56 AM..
When my phone vibrated, I didn’t even have to look. I knew what it meant: the house had finally sold.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel when it was finally over. I wondered if I would feel sad or anxious or regretful.
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